Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Oct. 14, 2007: From October 13th to 14th, the Pluralistic Culture and Global Harmony--International Seminar of Daisaku Ikeda’s Thought, co-sponsored by Soka University of Japan and Hunan Normal University of China, was held at HNU, Changsha.

At 8:30 a.m., the seminar was opened at the lecture hall of HNU’s College of Public Administration. The Vice-Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Governor Zhou Qiang sent his congratulatory letter to the seminar; Associate Supervisor of the Provincial Standing Committee of the People’s Congress Tang Zhixiang, Secretary-General of China National Association for Ethical Studies Professor Wu Qiantao, Vice-President of Soka University Professor Yoshihisa Baba and HUN’s Party Committee Secretary Professor Zhang Guoji attended the opening ceremony and addressed at it. Mr. Daisaku Ikeda himself and Professor Du Weiming from Harvard University also wrote to congratulate.

Zhou Qiang said in his congratulatory letter that Hunan has a long history and its culture is special and profound. The research seminar’s being held in Hunan is a dialogue between Hunan culture and world cultures, also is Hunan culture’s successful attempt forward the world, which will help the world realize Hunan, understand Hunan and regard Hunan, will help to enrich and develop Hunan culture, promote its harmonious construction, and will certainly make its due contribution to the world’s peace course.

Tang Zhixiang spoke highly of Daisaku Ikeda’s efforts for the world peace and Sino-Japanese friendship. Meanwhile, Zhang Guoji expressed his hope for the scholars that they should keep on tempering and innovating in the equal academic exchanges, share their real knowledge and profound insight so as to promote the level of Daisaku Ikeda’s thought, and contribute to prospering human culture and establishing a harmonious world.

The seminar was an occasion to co-study scientific principles, co-seek human being’s harmony, on which there were more than 100 experts and scholars from HNU, China National Association for Ethical Studies, Soka University, Beijing University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Sun Yat-Sen University, Beijing Normal University, Southeast University, Chinese Culture University of Taiwan, Tainan University of Science and Technology, and other academic institutions. They met together to probe into Daisaku Ikeda’s thought on philosophy, education, peace and harmony, and also shared their respect views on the basic laws in pluralistic culture and global harmony, the rootstock of ethnic culture development, the foundation to build a harmonious world.

Daisaku Ikeda, a world-famous religious and political promoter, peace protector as well as a spokesman for civilians, takes an active part in advocating pacifism with his Buddhism sentiments, persists in protecting the world peace and anti-war course. Having been devoting himself to the friendly communication between Chinese and Japanese people, he also used to be one of the initiators in the normalization of Sino-Japanese tie, and has made outstanding contribution to it