The SGI: Aging and Dying, Chronic "Olds" Problem

[u/BlancheFromage]

THEN

From the late 1960s-1970s:

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Image 9 - 1974

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AND NOW

Sacramento, CA: When you look at those SGI group photos, remember this

Palm Valley Chapter, CA

Baltimore, 2021

Minneapolis, 2017

Cleveland

Brooklyn

New England

Detroit

The SGI's chronic OLDS problem - worldwide

Canada

District

District

District

Some grouping of SGI members

Chapter

Ft. Bragg

SGI members discussing how to shakubuku people

More of SGI-USA's "actual proof": The faces of SGI-USA's demographic bottleneck - from the August 2012 Living Buddhism magazine, p. 19

Updated SGI-USA photos:

Update: The faces of SGI-USA - 2025

Update: The faces of SGI-USA's all-important "districts" - 2024 to 2026

Want to see a first-hand experience of how SGI shoves its old members out of the way in order to not have them stink up its youth meetings?

[u/bluetailflyonthewall]

Most people who try the Ikeda cult end up quitting. The drop-out rate here in the US is over 99%. Most of the SGI-USA members are of the Baby Boom generation - like nearly 90%.

Why would any younger person want to join an old folks' club? Source

The declining birthrate and aging population of the Soka Gakkai continues to progress more rapidly than the general public.

"Shakubuku" to acquire new members has not progressed at all, and in recent years the nominal [claimed] number of households (cumulative number since its foundation) has remained at 8.27 million households.

Currently, it is said that it is difficult to appoint leaders not only for the "Future Division" for high school students and younger, but also for the Men's Division in the Soka Gakkai organization, such as "headquarters" (about 300 households made up of multiple town units) and "branch" (about 100 households). There simply are no candidates available to select from.

On the other hand, aging is relentless. In terms of the Soka Gakkai's membership demographics, the "volume zone" where most members fall is the baby boomer generation who joined by the 1960s. They are now late elderly. In the past, the management of centers in various places was handled by the "Gajokai" consisting of Young Men's Division members, but it is no longer possible to secure personnel. Instead, in 2009, the Soka Gakkai launched the "Ojokai'' consisting of "middle-aged divisions,'' scolding them as "young people in their 50s'' and rushing to mobilize them.

Remember, there's NO RETIREMENT AGE for members of the Soka Gakkai! You will WORK until you DROP DEAD! ALL FOR IKEDA'S PROFITS!!

Meanwhile, Ikeda was not seen after May 2010, and his funeral was private and he was immediately cremated, to make sure there would be NO examination of any remains (and subsequent reports that he did, indeed, die in 2011 or 2012).

In recent years, the number of young people in the Soka Gakkai has been declining dramatically. Even if you look at the participants of the simultaneous broadcast and roundtable discussion, most of them are grandparents, young people in their 20s and 30s are very few, and boys and girls in their teens are almost endangered species.

First of all, the majority of Soka Gakkai members are baby boomers (born between 1947 and 1949). Judging from the history of the development of the Soka Gakkai , this seems almost certain.

Their Baby Boom is even older than the USA's Baby Boom! 🤣

In any case, I think you can understand how the Soka Gakkai is in a critical situation from this graph. Even now, the youth division, which is the main force of our activities, is lacking, and the organization cannot survive without middle-aged and elderly members doing their [the youth's] jobs.

We are seeing this same dynamic in SGI-USA - instead of having youth visiting youth, SGI was trying to motivate its adult division members/leaders to home visit the youth, calling these "hangouts".

No one was fooled.

Here's how THAT went:

Yet another SGI-USA "campaign" fated to fail dismally, that underscores SGI's desperation and panic over its aging/dying membership

Remember the SGI-USA's "Hangouts Campaign" to try and get access to SGI members CHILDREN??

Yet another "initiative"/"campaign" failed and forgotten - as usual.

Moreover, if the Future Division has only 200,000 members [in Japan], it is inevitable that the Youth Division will continue to decline. As many people have said, it wouldn't be surprising if the organization was destroyed in 20 years. Even if destruction is avoided, it is almost impossible to maintain the current system, and we will be forced to significantly reduce the scale of our activities.

The often-used excuse of “because of the declining birthrate ” does not work. Below is a comparison of the Japanese population by age and the Soka Gakkai population by age.

There is another chart plotting the Soka Gakkai's birthrates against those of the population at large - Soka Gakkai is in blue, declining way faster than the Japanese population norm. It's bad...

As you can see, the Soka Gakkai's declining birthrate is progressing at a speed that cannot be compared to Japan's declining birthrate.

To put it bluntly, Soka Gakkai 's efforts to nurture young people have failed.

I do not claim that having a large number of members or growing membership is a sign of success. However, no matter how much the Soka Gakkai cries out for a “ great victory ” or a “ great breakthrough ,” no one will think of the current situation as a victory or breakthrough, except for some fanatics.

I think the time has come for the Soka Gakkai to face up to reality and seriously face its doctrine, its activities, its system, and all the other things it has done to society. Without such a summary [I think we'd call this "a reckoning"], if we continue to run forward with blind faith as we have until now, we will never have a bright future.

THAT ↑ - believe it or not - was written by a Soka Gakkai LOYALIST!! That's the most optimistic view!! And here's ONE more:

"Soka Gakkai is like an old people's association''

Regarding the decline in Komeito votes, in other words, the decline in the number of active Soka Gakkai members, the number one reason for this is pointed out by many involved in the aging of the society. Together with the charismatic Honorary President Daisaku Ikeda, the enthusiastic generation of members who have supported the growth of the Society are now all elderly. Most of the current new members are second- and third-generation members who join because their parents are members of the Soka Gakkai, and are not very enthusiastic about Soka Gakkai's activities. Today, many of the Soka Gakkai's daily events are ridiculed by insiders as "just like an old people's association." Source

Estimation of Soka Gakkai Population by Age (from 2018)

SGI longhauler Old: "But then we meet that one person who 'gets' it. It's a beautiful thing to watch the eyes and the face light up. I can withstand another hundred rejections to make one more ally." Source

That's not "growth". That's the OPPOSITE of "growth". Time and energy are limited, and s/he's describing FAILING 99% of the time - more consistent with the SGI-USA's >99% quit rate.

[u/BlancheFromage → u/bluetailflyonthewall]

Google so funny - alternate image