EPISODE 133 | Cult Pop Suicide: Japanese Cults
Japan is a land of many contradictions - very forward-looking but also retrograde. And when it comes to the spiritual side of things, quite a few people seem to fall for various cults, scammers and charlatans. And just offbeat beliefs, like that Jesus' brother died on the cross while He moved to Aomori Prefecture in northern Honshu, where he married and taught and lived until 106.
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SECTIONS

04:52 - Hey Mister Banjo - The Yamagishi Society
07:28 - Hotaru no Hikari (Light of the Fireflies) -  Mahikari, the World True Light Civilization Religious Organization
10:34 - Nagaragawa Enka (The Enka of the Nagara River) - Life Space Movement, shakty pat and a mummy
15:44 - Katatsumuri Samba (Snail Samba) - Ho No Hana Sanpōgyō, the Flower of Buddhist Teaching; Hogen Fukunaga and Yogesh Gandhi donate money to the DNC, kick off Chinagate
23:54 - Orokamono (Fool) - Pana-Wave Laboratory, electromagnetic waves, Tama-chan the arctic seal, a police standoff and the end of the world
33:50 - Doctor Head's World Tower - Happy Science, EL Cantare, gods from Venus, Komei No Kai sells water, Happy Science gets political, sets records, gets in beefs and embraces MAGA, pioneers "spiritual vaccines"
43:41 - Lunatic Doll: Ansatsu Keikoku (Assassination Warning) - Aum Shinrikyo has a real bad attitude, the sarin gas attacks of March 20, 1995 plus other crimes before and after
54:26 - Japanese police are unprepared for NRMs, online suicide cults, hikikomori


Music by Fanette Ronjat

More Info

Expo 2025 website
Apples, boogie and shamisen: A Brief look at Japanese Popular Music during the Allied Occupation
Kazuya Kosaka & the Wagon Masters - Hey Mister Banjo
‘Rokabiri’: The Music That Shook Japan on Japan Nakama
Glow of the Fireflies/Hotaru no hikari song
Japanese Enka Music
Nagaragawa Enka song performed by Junko Ishihara
Katatsumuri Samba song by Onyanko Club
Orokamono song by Masahiko Kondo
The World Tower song by Flipper's Guitar
Black Hole song by Mari Hamada
Keeping the Faith: Christ’s Tomb in Aomori and Japanese Religion on Nippon.com
The Grave of Jesus Christ on Travel Japan
The 5 Scariest Japanese Cults on Japan Daily
10 Bizarre Japanese Cults You’ve Probably Never Heard Of on Listverse
Rise of Japanese cults on BBC
Japanese Society and Religion on the Eve of the 21st Century by MAEKAWA Michiko
Whatever happened to Yamagishi? in Japan Times
The Yamagishi Association: successful, moneyless, leaderless network of communes in Japan and elsewhere on Lowimpact.org
Sukyo Mahikari North America website
World Divine Light website
Japanese Cults–Koji Takahashi and the Life Space Movement on Japan Powered
The Corpse And The Cult in Newsweek
Life Space Movement (Shakty Pay Guru Foundation) Raided in Japan on Center for Studies on New Religions
Life Space guru denies suggesting man leave hospital on Japan Times
A battle over mummified body renews worry about Japan cults on DeseretNews
Ho No Hana Sanpogyo on Apologetics Index
1996 United States campaign finance controversy on Wikipedia
New Religious Movement Raided in Japan: Ho No Hana on CESNUR
Honohana foot-cult guru gets 12 years for fraud on Japan Times
Pana Wave Laboratory on World Religions and Spirituality Project
Doomsday cult makes waves in Japan in The Guardian
Probing Pana Wave's nature
The Latest Japanese Cult Panic in Religion in the News
Pana Wave at the Cult Education Institute
A nation's fate is sealed - Guardian article on Tama-chan
Foreigners seek same rights as seal on Japan Times
Pana Wave: Doomsday and Tama-chan the Seal video
Pana Wave pictures
Happy Science website
Japan’s infamous ‘happy’ cult sets sights on the United States
The Happy Science Religious Movement Claims to Hold the Cure for COVID-19
A Japanese Cult That Believes Its Leader Is an Alien From Venus Is Speaking at CPAC
How a fringe religious movement in Japan built a pro-Trump social media empire
Happy Science Is the Laziest Cult Ever on Vice
Why is Japan the ideal country according to the Alt-Right movement
Japan's rising right-wing nationalism video
Consideration of the Status of Conspiracy Theories in Japan Based on Attempts at Regime Destruction Overseas in International Information Network Analysis
QAnon Is Alive and Well in Japan
Aum Shinrikyo: The Japanese cult behind the Tokyo Sarin attack on BBC
Chronology of Aum Shinrikyo's CBW Activities paper
Aum Shinrikyo report at the Ministry of Justice
Revisiting Aum Shinrikyo: New Insights into the Most Extensive Non-State Biological Weapons Program to Date
Aleph official website (in Japanese)
Aum Sect/Shoko Asahara on Cult Education Institute
Religion-Making in Japan’s Courts of Law
Conspiracy Theories and Their Believers in Contemporary Japan
New Religions in Japan
Yearning for spiritual leadership, Japan has spawned a rash of apocalyptic religions and ominously popular sects at the Cult Education Institute
Japanese New Religious Movements: An Introduction by Franz Weiner in the Handbook of East Asian New Religious Movement
Japan’s chilling Internet suicide pacts
Japan suicide websites targeted after 'house of horrors'
Hikikomori, A Japanese Culture-Bound Syndrome of Social Withdrawal? A Proposal for DSM-V

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