Cult Pop Suicide: Japanese Cults

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

1. 04:52 - Hey Mister Banjo - The Yamagishi Society
2. 07:28 - Hotaru no Hikari (Light of the Fireflies) -  Mahikari, the World True Light Civilization Religious Organization
3. 10:34 - Nagaragawa Enka (The Enka of the Nagara River) - Life Space Movement, shakty pat and a mummy
4. 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
5. 23:54 - Orokamono (Fool) - Pana-Wave Laboratory, electromagnetic waves, Tama-chan the arctic seal, a police standoff and the end of the world
6. 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"
7. 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
8. 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