Soka University opened on April 2, 1971, in Hachioji in the suburbs of Tokyo. Preparations began seven years earlier, in June, 1964, when Daisaku Ikeda, president of Soka Gakkai International, first officially announced his intention to build a university founded on the principles of Soka (value-creating) education. The unchanging mission of Soka University is to foster and develop individuals capable of creating new values in whichever arena they are engaged; individuals who, irrespective of the age, embody the founding spirit of the university, as laid out by Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, the founder. Dr. Ikeda has remarked that Soka University is now in its second pioneering period, one in which it must open up a "golden age" of value-creating education. In order to help usher in such an age, I am resolved to create, through the united efforts of the faculty, administration and student body, a new history within Soka University.