Japan and Trump's social media

May 6, 2021 7:31 AM

How a fringe religious movement in Japan built a pro-Trump social media Happy Science has adopted American far-right ideology for its own gain, just like Falun Gong.
posted by robbyrobs (14 comments total)

Happy Science is weird to me... I only know them because they maintain a pleasant looking right across the street from Pasadena City College. (Between them and Shumei also being here and the incessant Falun Gong production posters, we've got some interesting activity going on around here)
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:04 AM on May 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

I actually saw a poster for some event organized by these people in the Toronto subway last year.

I used to live near a town in Japan with its own fringe syncretic religion (although one founded in the 19th century), so Happy Science is hardly unique on the Japanese spiritual landscape. The main thing that seems to distinguish them from other groups is their willingness to explicitly link themselves with a current political movement in the US.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:50 AM on May 6, 2021

Asian religious groups/cults seem to like getting involved in conservative US politics for some reason. The original case is of course how Sun Myung Moon's Unification church got heavily involved in supporting the Religious Right back in the 80s. This was at the same time that those same religious conservatives were calling the Moonies a dangerous cult and hiring deprogrammers to get their kids out of it.
posted by JZig at 9:32 AM on May 6, 2021 [8 favorites]

From paragraph 14 of the article: "revealed that, in a past life, Trump had actually been the first American president."

Wow. That is the DEEP CRAZY right there.

Though I could go Joseph Campbell and postulate on the parallels with Bai Shangdi Hui, which conflated Huang Di with the antichrist in their syncretistic reinterpretation of Christianity.

Hopefully Happy Science won't try to start a civil war. But the track record of charismatic cults in Japan is not good....
posted by LeRoienJaune at 9:34 AM on May 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

A lot of religious groups/cults seem to skew conservative, not just Asian ones.

That said, the Unification Church still owns the Washington Times through some shell corporations.
posted by i used to be someone else at 10:01 AM on May 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

They worshipped Margaret Thatcher for years (possibly even while she was alive), so they’re not newcomers to the right.

They also believe that nuclear war is a good thing, so they’re essentially right-wing Posadists.
posted by acb at 10:30 AM on May 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

I only know them because they maintain a pleasant looking right across the street from Pasadena City College

Happy Science is well known enough in Japan that the first season of Mob Psycho 100 contains a thinly veiled reference to it:

> a cult known as (LOL) has formed in service to a man with the power to make anyone laugh and smile.

I suppose one random anime is also obscure but the show seems like it expects viewers to at least be familiar with the target it lampoons.
posted by pwnguin at 12:12 PM on May 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

A lot of religious groups/cults seem to skew conservative, not just Asian ones.

You go where the marks are.
posted by Horkus at 2:06 PM on May 6, 2021 [13 favorites]

As far as the skewing right, all of these cults (and Japan has a lot of them) seek validation and legitimacy. Meanwhile, the right desperately seeks allies and money, all the while going on about morals and religious freedom. The cults jump on that religious freedom angle, saying “we, too wish to be left to practice our religion as our great leader tells us.”

There’s not ever going to be any kind of due diligence or vetting when you’re being given bags of cash and promised a block of voters, and the cults have a vested interest in putting into power people running their own personality cults (back in the day, Reagan, now, clearly, Trump, who never turned down a chance to be exploited/used by a group in exchange for cash that he didn’t jump on).
posted by Ghidorah at 3:16 PM on May 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

I was trying to explain to an associate why The Epoch Times was not a valid news source. How it had gone from Falun Gong to Trumpism, with some massive, shadow backing. Thanks for a clear, and terrifying, explanation.
posted by Oyéah at 4:00 PM on May 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

I used to live near a town in Japan with its own fringe syncretic religion (although one founded in the 19th century)

Tenri?
posted by emmling at 5:42 PM on May 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Tenri?

If you look east from the train station, you can see the hills where I used to live.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:02 PM on May 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

On a recent walk, Mrs. Ghidorah pointed out the (really, really) large Soka Gakai center in our area. I’d never really noticed it before, but it’s massive. Evidently they were largely the reason everyone in Japan got ¥100,000 last year instead of sending ¥300,000 to people who needed it. From what I heard, SG members wouldn’t have qualified for the ¥300k, so they refused to play along until something was changed so their members could get it (and most likely pass along a chunk in tithes).

For every quaint little cult people joke about in Japan (not including Happy Science, they’re past that point) it’s always a little sobering to remember that Japan’s ruling coalition needs the support of a cult’s political arm to get anything done.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:36 PM on May 6, 2021 [6 favorites]

Channelling living people is some next level bullshit right there
posted by OverlappingElvis at 11:43 AM on May 7, 2021