[8] Ikeda has been described as controversial over the decades due to the ambivalent reputation of the Soka Gakkai[9] and his relation to the political party Kōmeitō, which he founded.

Ikeda's eldest brother, Kiichi, died in the Imphal Campaign in Burma, in January 1945, during the last stages of World War II.

Shortly after the end of World War II, in January 1946, Ikeda gained employment with the Shobundo Printing Company in Tokyo.

[14] During this time, he worked as an editor of the children's magazine Shonen Nihon (Boy's Life Japan), which was published by one of Josei Toda's companies.[15]: f.

Later that year, Ikeda began to travel overseas to build connections between Soka Gakkai members living abroad and expand the movement globally.

[18] He reformed many of the organization's practices[citation needed], including the aggressive conversion style known as shakubuku, for which the group had been criticized in Japan and in other countries.

[21]: 55 Ikeda continued to be revered as the Soka Gakkai's spiritual leader, according to Asian studies associate professor Daniel Métraux.

"[24] Sociologist of religion Peter Beyer in 2006 summarizes an understanding in the context of contemporary global society: "Until the 1990s, Soka Gakkai still was related formally to the monastic organization, Nichiren Shoshu, but conflicts over authority led to their separation (Métraux 1994).

According to Asian studies professor Daniel Métraux in 1994, Ikeda is "possibly one of the more controversial figures in Japan's modern history".

She writes: "On the long flight to Japan, I read for the first time my grandfather's posthumously, published book, "Choose Life -- A Dialogue".. .

Several days passed before we were to meet our mysterious host, time in which we learned more about Mr Ikeda and his Soka Gakkai movement.

One thing above allo others was made clear: this was an organisation of immense wealth, power and political influence (...) Asked to hazard a guess at his occupation, few would have selected him as a religious figure.

"[35]: 44 A lot of newspapers and scholars have proven though that, despite the formal separation, there are still "strong links"[36]: 363 [37]: 170  and that the Komeito has remained to some extent the "political arm" of Soka Gakkai.

[47] In the 1969 edition of Seiji shūkyō, "he declared that obutsu myogo would not be an act of Soka Gakkai imposing its will on the Japanese state to install Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism as the national creed," and that "Soka Gakkai, through Komeito, would instead guide Japan to a new, democratic world order, a 'Buddhist democracy' (buppo minshu shugi) combining the Dharma with the best of the Euro-American philosophical tradition to focus on social welfare and humanistic socialism.

[49]: 233, 232  In 1970, after Ikeda announced the severing of official ties between the Soka Gakkai and Komeito, the use of "politically charged terms such as obutsu myogo" was eliminated.

[55] First in 1967 then several times in 1970, Ikeda met with Austrian-Japanese politician and philosopher Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, founder of the Paneuropean Movement.

[60][61]: 250 Ikeda's meetings with Nelson Mandela in the 1990s led to a series of Soka Gakkai International-sponsored anti-apartheid lectures, a traveling exhibit, and multiple student exchange programs at the university level.

"[63]: 9 Ikeda made several visits to China and met with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1974, though Sino-Japanese tensions remained over the brutalities of war waged by the Japanese militarists.

[62] Chinese media describe Ikeda as an early proponent of normalizing diplomatic relations between China and Japan in the 1970s, citing his 1968 proposal that drew condemnation by some and the interest of others including Zhou Enlai.

[69] The 1976 publication of Choose Life: A Dialogue (in Japanese, Nijusseiki e no taiga) is the published record of dialogues and correspondences that began in 1971 between Ikeda and British historian Arnold J. Toynbee about the "convergence of East and West"[70] on contemporary as well as perennial topics ranging from the human condition to the role of religion and the future of human civilization.

[74] In Life—An Enigma, a Precious Jewel (1982), Unlocking the Mysteries of Birth and Death (1984), discussions of a Buddhist ontology offer an alternative to anthropocentric and biocentric approaches to wildlife conservation.