by the SGI-USA Youth Leaders
“It’s Showtime!”—Our theme for the 2026 March Youth Training Course was a truly fitting description for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. One-hundred and twenty student and youth leaders of SGI-USA arrived in Japan on March 18, 2026, to make a vow for peace together with the Soka Gakkai youth division. For the next four days, we traveled throughout Tokyo and the Chugoku region (the westernmost part of Japan’s main island) and learned from the members the history of kosen-rufu and deepened our understanding of the heart of our mentor, Ikeda Sensei.
We want to thank the Soka Gakkai members in Japan, especially in Chugoku region, for hosting us and enabling us to forge lifelong bonds. Because the Chugoku members made painstaking efforts to prepare for the training course, the SGI-USA youth created unforgettable memories that will fuel us toward making kosen-rufu a reality here in America.
We also want to thank all the members of the SGI-USA. Without your daimoku and encouragement, this training course would not have become a reality. It was truly a Soka family effort. Every daimoku counted. Every encouragement made a difference. The behind-the-scenes support enabled us to travel to Japan and come back home safely. Thank you very much.
Our training course started before we landed in Japan. All 120 youth and student division leaders studied key chapters of The New Human Revolution to deepen our seeking spirit and unite with our mentor’s heart. In particular, we studied “The Treasure of Life” chapter in volume 22 of The New Human Revolution, which highlighted Sensei’s efforts in Hiroshima, where we spent the final days of the training course. Sensei wrote of how he prepared for his visit to Hiroshima, saying, “When [he] thought of his mentor’s determined feelings, he himself felt that, as Toda’s disciple, he couldn’t set foot in Hiroshima if he wasn’t engaged in a wholehearted struggle for peace” (p. 316).
In the same spirit, the training course participants engaged in our own struggle for peace. Leading up to the trip, all 120 youth shared Buddhism with their friends—96 of us brought a friend to a meeting and 23 helped a friend receive the Gohonzon.
Hiroshima, the site of unspeakable tragedy, the first place on earth to suffer a nuclear attack, was the place we each made a vow for peace with Sensei to never allow this type of cruelty to be repeated. We refreshed our spirit that kosen-rufu is not a distant dream but happens every day when we meet and inspire one person after another.
In Japanese, the sound “sho” from the theme “It’s Showtime” has different meanings. Sho means to chant daimoku. Sho also means victory. With our united resolve to report victory to our mentor by making daimoku and action our basis, we came out victorious. We brought back a renewed vow as youth to take full responsibility for kosen-rufu toward Jan. 2, 2028, and beyond with our “One Youth. Infinite Hope” initiative.
Thank you again to all the members in the U.S. and Japan. Please enjoy this special edition of the World Tribune dedicated to all of you.
It’s Showtime!
Shota Okajima, Amelia Gonzalez Tesch and Kenichi Hackman
On behalf of the SGI-USA youth and student divisions
You are reading {{ meterCount }} of {{ meterMax }} free premium articles