5 ms·

Only reason I was curious is that I've heard them described as a cult by a lot of people. In my experience, they seem pretty harmless, and overall pretty frien

by donw 16y ago

Only reason I was curious is that I've heard them described as a cult by a lot of people. In my experience, they seem pretty harmless, and overall pretty friendly, but religion in general makes me... edgy. But yeah, them being hated by the right-wingers does score them points in my book. :) Didn't know about Kofuku Jitsugento; care to enlighten me?

jbm 16y ago
They are quite a cult but honestly, religion in Japan is very difficult for me to grok. All the members of these "New Religions" that I've met seem to be old/facing mortality, with two exceptions. As for Kofuku Jitsugen To, you probably know them under their English name. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_Realization_Party http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_Realization_Party The HRP is scary because they sincerely believe all of Japan is under existential threat by North Korea and that they need to remilitarize to "take them out". If that sounds normal to y'all, it's because you never read the books by the founder or how Kim Jong Il's "teacher's ghost" supposedly appeared before the founder and told him that NK would destroy Japan for its evil master China. (On the other hand, they want to have more babies which would be good for Japan, particularly if it resulted in people getting out of the Tokyo area...)
- oiuhyjtgfhjkl 16y ago
  No problem - there is a trivial (in the mathematical sense) solution to Japanese militarism.
astrange 16y ago
http://2chan.us/wordpress/2009/07/23/new-political-party-based-on-religious-cult-floods-japanese-election/ http://2chan.us/wordpress/2009/07/23/new-political-party-bas... http://2chan.us/wordpress/2009/07/28/hold-on-to-your-sanity-its-the-happy-science-platform/ http://2chan.us/wordpress/2009/07/28/hold-on-to-your-sanity-... covers some of it.
- donw 16y ago
  Oh, wow. This explains who the asshole in the black van was. Backstory: In Japan, it's pretty common around election season to have politicians rolling around in vans with loudspeakers, asking you to vote for them. You just get used to it after awhile. But a few weeks ago, when I was walking to the station, a black van with illegible handwriting on the side had the loudspeakers turned up to about ten million. I could hear them literally three kilometers away, and anything less than five hundred meters was painful. Of course, because they had the volume up so high, the distortion made whatever they had blaring out of their loudspeakers totally incomprehensible. The other pedestrians, shop owners, and anybody blessed with the gift of hearing all looked pretty pissed.
  - jbm 16y ago
    The black vans weren't them; you're thinking the Uyoku. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyoku_dantai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyoku_dantai It could have been a political group but somehow I doubt they would be stupid enough to turn the volume to 11.
    - mahmud 16y ago
      Aaaah, those fuckers. They're some thinly veiled mafiosi.

by donw 16y ago

jbm 16y ago

They are quite a cult but honestly, religion in Japan is very difficult for me to grok. All the members of these "New Religions" that I've met seem to be old/facing mortality, with two exceptions. As for Kofuku Jitsugen To, you probably know them under their English name. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_Realization_Party http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_Realization_Party The HRP is scary because they sincerely believe all of Japan is under existential threat by North Korea and that they need to remilitarize to "take them out". If that sounds normal to y'all, it's because you never read the books by the founder or how Kim Jong Il's "teacher's ghost" supposedly appeared before the founder and told him that NK would destroy Japan for its evil master China. (On the other hand, they want to have more babies which would be good for Japan, particularly if it resulted in people getting out of the Tokyo area...)

oiuhyjtgfhjkl 16y ago
No problem - there is a trivial (in the mathematical sense) solution to Japanese militarism.

astrange 16y ago

http://2chan.us/wordpress/2009/07/23/new-political-party-based-on-religious-cult-floods-japanese-election/ http://2chan.us/wordpress/2009/07/23/new-political-party-bas... http://2chan.us/wordpress/2009/07/28/hold-on-to-your-sanity-its-the-happy-science-platform/ http://2chan.us/wordpress/2009/07/28/hold-on-to-your-sanity-... covers some of it.

donw 16y ago
Oh, wow. This explains who the asshole in the black van was. Backstory: In Japan, it's pretty common around election season to have politicians rolling around in vans with loudspeakers, asking you to vote for them. You just get used to it after awhile. But a few weeks ago, when I was walking to the station, a black van with illegible handwriting on the side had the loudspeakers turned up to about ten million. I could hear them literally three kilometers away, and anything less than five hundred meters was painful. Of course, because they had the volume up so high, the distortion made whatever they had blaring out of their loudspeakers totally incomprehensible. The other pedestrians, shop owners, and anybody blessed with the gift of hearing all looked pretty pissed.
- jbm 16y ago
  The black vans weren't them; you're thinking the Uyoku. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyoku_dantai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyoku_dantai It could have been a political group but somehow I doubt they would be stupid enough to turn the volume to 11.
  - mahmud 16y ago
    Aaaah, those fuckers. They're some thinly veiled mafiosi.