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.
Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on Buy Me a Coffee. Review us here or on...
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.
Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on Buy Me a Coffee. Review us here or on IMDb.
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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
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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