Word: gakkai
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Claiming 16 million adherents, Soka Gakkai (Value Creation Society) is by far the most successful of the new religious movements. It has its roots in ancient Buddhism, and followers are included in the statistics for Buddhists, not in the "new religions." Unlike other new Japanese sects, Soka Gakkai is intolerant, going so far as to preach that "Shinto is a heretical religion that we must destroy." Contrary to Japanese custom, Soka Gakkai also asks its believers to proselytize, and has moved abroad: it claims 200,000 members in the U.S., mainly in California. Soka Gakkai teaches that continual repetition...