Happy Science

[[File:Master Ryuho Okawa, Feb. 15, 2015.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Nice tie...]]{{cult}}
'''Happy Science''' (幸福の科学 ''Kōfuku-no-Kagaku'') is a [[Japan|Japanese]] [[cult]] which is every bit as demented and psychotic as its name, and then some. The group operates a publishing company and several film/animation studios, funds a [[Political party|political wing]] that fields candidates in Japan, runs a system of [[Academic accreditation|unaccredited]] "universities", and holds [[Brainwashing|events and enlightening seminars]]. It claims 11 million members worldwide in more than 50 countries, though a former member estimated membership at only around 30,000.<ref name="nytimes">{{Cite news|title=Inside the Fringe Japanese Religion That Claims It Can Cure COVID-19|url=https://www.nytimes.com/article/happy-science-japan-coronavirus-cure.html|work=The New York Times|accessdate=2021-05-24|date=16 April 2020}}</ref>

Formerly known as '''[[Bullshit|The Institute for Research in Human Happiness]]''',<ref name="fumika">{{Cite news|title=Fumika Shimizu Retires From Acting to Join Happy Science Religious Organization|url =https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-02-13/fumika-shimizu-retires-from-acting-to-join-happy-science-religious-organization/.112162|work=Anime News Network|accessdate=2019-07-15|date =February 2017}}</ref> Happy Science is one of a large number of [[New religious movement|new religions]] which have sprouted up in post-war Japan, generally regarded derisively and suspiciously by most Japanese, particularly after [[Aum Shinrikyo|a 1995 terrorist attack perpetrated by a different cult in Tokyo's subway]]. The group's English-language reading materials seem benign enough, but the group's [[far-right]] political agenda is expressed much more openly and unambiguously in their Japanese-language media, which espouses extreme Japanese [[nationalism]], social [[conservatism]], and [[xenophobia]].

==Origins==
Happy Science was founded in the 1980s by day-trader-turned-[[L. Ron Hubbard|Elron]] '''Ryuho Okawa''' (大川 隆法, ''Ōkawa Ryūhō''),{{efn|Real name Takashi Nakagawa (中川 隆, ''Nakagawa Takashi'')<ref name="nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp">Trevor Astley, The Transformation of a Recent Japanese New Religion: Okawa Ryuho and Kofuku no Kagaku; Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1995 22/3-4; http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/publications/jjrs/pdf/454.pdf</ref> Note that he changed his last name 中川 (literally "middle river") to 大川 ("big river") and his first name 隆 ("grand") to 隆法 ("grand law")}} {{lived|1956|2023}}<ref>[https://www.sankei.com/article/20230302-JTYL7FBMSFNPJMBCTZXD2O65UU/ https://www.sankei.com/article/20230302-JTYL7FBMSFNPJMBCTZXD2O65UU/]''Sankei News''</ref> who evidently found starting a [[religion]] was a much better [[scam]] than shilling stocks. According to his official biography, "sometime after 2 pm on March 23<sup>rd</sup>, 1981," he <strike>[[Hallucination|hallucinated]]</strike> attained "Great Enlightenment" and declared himself the [[reincarnation]] of [[God]] (the same one from more familiar religions), known for some reason as ''El Cantare'' (which, when put into google translate, coms out as Catalan for "he will sing." So it's probably meant to be nothing more than foreign-sounding gibberish). He had occupied himself since then chiefly with lectures, which have been transcribed into thousands of books; he claimed a Guinness World Record in 2011 for "the most books written in one year by an individual," with 52 books published under his name in 2010 alone.<ref>[https://happy-science.org/ryuho-okawa/ryuho_okawa Ryuho Okawa, Founder and CEO of the Happy Science Group]</ref>{{efn|"Claimed" and not "earned" because it's a real stretch to describe rambling for hours on end about aliens to a crowd of adoring followers as "writing".}}

His first wife, leader of the Happies' political party and self-proclaimed "reborn Aphrodite and bodhisattva of wisdom and intellect",<ref name="jt20090804">{{cite news |last = McNeill|first = David|title = Party offers a third way: happiness|newspaper = The Japan Times|date = 4 August 2009|url = http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2009/08/04/issues/party-offers-a-third-way-happiness|accessdate = 6 August 2009}}</ref> was [[Shunning|shunned]] for angering Lord El Cantare.<ref>''Shūkan Bunshun'' 3 February 2011, p. 140–43</ref><ref>''Shūkan Shinchō'' 3 February 2011, pp.136–37</ref><ref name="liberty20110222">{{cite web |url= http://www.the-liberty.com/article.php?item_id=1385|title=幸福の科学が大川きょう子氏を永久追放 (Happy Science permanently expels Kyoko Okawa)|first= |last= |author= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= February 22, 2011|work= The Liberty Web|publisher= IRH Press Co., Ltd.|location= |language= Japanese|accessdate= July 2, 2012}}</ref> They divorced, and his next wife is apparently a reincarnation of {{wpl|Gaia||.}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/In-Love-Sun-Spiritual-Interview/dp/1941779263|title=In Love with the Sun: Spiritual Messages from Goddess Gaia|last=Okawa|first=Ryuho Okawa & Shio|date=2014-11-21|publisher=IRH Press Company Limited|isbn=9781941779262|language=English}}</ref> He had at least one son, Hiroshi, a vocal critic of Happy Science who describes the group's teachings as "complete nonsense."<ref name="nytimes" />

==Beliefs==
Happy Science teaches that El Cantare is actually an [[alien]] from [[Venus]], who "received a will from the Primordial [[Buddha]] of the [[universe]]" and shacked up here on Earth after a big Venusian volcanic eruption in order to help create utopia.<ref name="HSMonthly">{{cite magazine |date=November 2018 |issue=296 |title= |url= |magazine=Happy Science Monthly |location= |publisher=Happy Science USA |access-date= }}</ref> According to Happy Science, aliens visited the [[Middle East]] and [[Saudi Arabia]] frequently during antiquity, protected the Incas from annihilation at the hands of space villains, and kept [[Atlantis]] from falling into the ocean (for a while, I guess).<ref name="HSMonthly" /> The group endorses [[reincarnation]], with a twist — it turns out [[soul]]s form groups of six for some reason, which guide each other somehow through their temporal lives.<ref name="HSMonthly" /> During the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], Happy Science and its publications spread conspiracy theories about the origin of SARS-CoV-2, and offered a "spiritual vaccine" against the virus in return for a donation of hundreds of dollars.<ref>{{cite book |last=Okawa |first=Ryuho |date=3 April 2020 |title=Spiritual Reading of Novel Coronavirus Infection Originated in China |url=https://okawabooks.com/hs_press/china-novel-coronavirus/ |location=Tokyo |publisher=IRH Press USA |page= |isbn= 1943869774}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://grapee.jp/en/140050 |title=The Happy Science Religious Movement Claims to Hold the Cure for COVID-19 |publisher=Grape Japan (grapee.jp) |date=2020-05-21 |accessdate=2021-05-24}}</ref>

So far, this is junior-varsity cult stuff — completely bananas, but relatively innocent. But [[Crank magnetism|it gets ''way'' wackier…]]

== Happiness Realization Party ==
[[File:Japan_Kyoto_Happiness_Realisation_Party.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Vote Happy!]]
The Happies are active in politics in Japan, with a political party, the '''Happiness Realization Party''' (幸福実現党, ''Kōfuku Jitsugen-tō''), fielding candidates in 99% of Japan's constituencies.<ref name="NHK">{{cite web|url=http://www.nhk.or.jp/kouho/top/jyo.html |title=NHKオンライン |publisher=Nhk.or.jp |date= |accessdate=2012-02-21}}</ref> As of April 2018, the party has 21 elected local councilors but no nationwide elected offices.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.hr-party.jp/blog/556.html |title=The Happiness Realization Party |publisher=En.hr-party.jp |date= |accessdate=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pjnews.net/news/533/20090831_7 |title=533 |publisher=Pj News |date= |accessdate=2012-02-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = https://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2010/06/30/japanese-politics-the-unusual-suspects/ | title = Japanese Politics — The Unusual Suspects | author = Andrew Joyce | newspaper = The Wall Street Journal | date = 2010-06-30 | accessdate = }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=HRP Election Information|url=https://candidates.hr-party.jp/|website=Happiness Realization Party|accessdate=16 May 2018}}</ref> 

=== Platform ===
Their platform is socially conservative, [[homophobic]],<ref>[http://eng.the-liberty.com/2019/7415/ The Liberty - Why Freddy Didn't Go To Heaven]</ref> [[anti-abortion]],<ref>[http://eng.the-liberty.com/2013/3755/ Is Birth Control Against the Will of God? Part 1: The Spiritual Truths about Pregnancies and Abortions]</ref> and anti-Chinese/anti-Korean; HRP publications express qualified support for [[Donald Trump]], [[Denialism|deny]] the [[Rape of Nanjing|Nanjing Massacre]] and [[Comfort women|the forced prostitution of civilians]] in occupied [[Korea]] during [[World War II]], and support [[nuclear war]] against [[China]] and [[North Korea]].<ref>{{cite web|title=HRP Election Information|url=https://candidates.hr-party.jp/|website=Happiness Realization Party|accessdate=16 May 2018}}</ref><ref name="Saint-Guily">{{cite journal|url=https://www.vice.com/read/my-afternoon-with-a-failed-japanese-cult|title=Happy Science Is the Laziest Cult Ever|last=Saint-Guily|first=Sylla|date=3 October 2012|magazine=Vice|accessdate=}}</ref><ref name="soranews">{{cite journal|url=https://www.vice.com/read/my-afternoon-with-a-failed-japanese-cult|title=I accidentally infiltrated the Happy Science cult while in junior high school|last=Hattori|first=Go|date=2017-02-18|magazine=SoraNews24|accessdate=}}</ref>

== Trumpism ==
It should surprise no one at this point that the Happies have dived headfirst into far-right American politics, attending [[Republican Party|CPAC]] in 2012 and 2021<ref name="atlantic">{{cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/can-the-tea-party-take-japan/308938/|title=Can the Tea Party Take Japan?|date=May 2, 2012|publisher=The Atlantic}}</ref><ref name="vice">{{cite news|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3v9be/a-japanese-cult-that-believes-its-leader-is-an-alien-from-venus-is-speaking-at-cpac|title=A Japanese Cult That Believes Its Leader Is an Alien From Venus Is Speaking at CPAC|date=25 February 2021|publisher=VICE}}</ref> and organizing protests in support of [[QAnon]] and [[2021 U.S. Capitol riot|attempts to overturn United States elections]].<ref name="nytimes" /><ref name="washingtonpost">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/01/07/trump-qanon-stop-the-steal-japan/|title=Trump’s ‘stop the steal’ message finds an international audience among conspiracy theorists and suspected cults|date=7 Jan 2021|work=The Washington Post|accessdate=24 May 2021}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Netto-uyoku]]
* [[Unification Church]] - [[South Korean]] new religious right
* [[Falun Gong]] - [[Chinese]] new religious right

==External links==
* [http://happy-science.org happy-science.org]
* [http://eng.the-liberty.com ''The Liberty'' - Happy News!]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Blasphemy (probably)]]
[[Category:Buddhism]]
[[Category:Science fiction]]
[[Category:Ancient aliens]]
[[Category:Japan]]
[[Category:Misnomers]]
[[Category:Purity culture]]

Categories: Blasphemy (probably), Buddhism, Science fiction, Ancient aliens, Japan, Misnomers, Purity culture