3 February 2024 marked the 50th anniversary of the book donation campaign carried out by the Soka Gakkai in Japan. The first donation was made on 3 February 1974, when the organization donated over 1,000 books along with new bookcases to Ohara Junior High School, located in remote Iriomote Island, Okinawa.

At the time, it had been just two years since Okinawa's reversion to mainland Japan following the US Occupation, and the social infrastructure was weak. There was an urgent need to improve the educational environment, including facilities and teaching materials. In this context, Soka Gakkai’s large donation of books had a positive impact on children on the island, which had no library or bookstore.

Soka Gakkai made additional donations to 24 schools in remote areas across Japan during the first phase of the project.

In total, over a 50-year period, some 560,000 books have been donated to more than 1,300 educational institutions in remote regions and places affected by natural disasters across Japan. The books donated range from bookseller recommendations to illustrated encyclopedias and, more recently, books related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Fifty years after the first donation, on 2 February 2024, the Soka Gakkai in Japan donated some 300 children’s books to an elementary school in Takahagi City, Ibaraki Prefecture. This area had been affected by flooding in September 2023, which inundated the school yard and buildings. The school conducts a reading campaign in which students from its library committee read aloud to their peers and also holds book review competitions, or “biblio battles.” Over the next five years, Soka Gakkai will donate additional books to the school annually.