RResidents in Japan

Any experience with cults in Japan?

  • September 6, 2025

Today me and my husband were taking the kids to one of our favourite beaches. I always got this weird feeling about the house/building across the road from it. But today when we walked past, there was a portrait of Shoko Asahara (aum shinrikyo) displayed at the very top of a shelf thing for everyone to see. It was a painting of him against a red background, not big but obvious. I instantly got a really bad feeling even though it didn't click at first. There were some old people standing around watching and talking too. (Often there is) When we got to the beach my husband said lets go somewhere else and then back at the car don't go near that house did you see the picture? Right, so it WAS that guy… I didn't know much about it but I just spent the evening reading wikipedia pages about it and geezus that's disturbing. I have had plenty of run ins with cults in my life already and they creep me tf out. But this is not even a cult basically just a terrorist organisation, even if they haven't done anything criminal in years that we know of. It's still not right. Is this common? At first I thought maybe it was like a pop- culture/satire type painting but the way it was framed and displayed doesn't make sense. And I know he still has many active followers, there was even an incident in 2019. That building is a apparently a day centre (care for old people during the day. ) I've stopped there a few times and talked to some strange old people in the past, I wonder if they were related to the cult. But I've never seen that painting until today. Honestly I'm a bit shocked and wondered if I should alert the police . But my husband says something like its too dangerous to get involved 😂 I'm just gonna go ahead and say where this is it's Mihokogaura in Miyazaki Prefecture. Please let me know your thoughts.

by sakananoyume

11 comments

  1. I saw a pair of Mormon missionaries at the restaurant where we stopped to eat lunch today. They disappeared from this area during the pandemic and this is the first time I’ve seen them since. Looks like they’re coming back.

  5. This made me do a deep dive into aum shinrikyo.. I think a new Netflix documentary is necessary for this one.

  6. This is a prime example of “mind your business.”

    You were the one looking into windows and being nosy. It’s not illegal or a crime to have a picture of Asahara hanging up inside even if it is weird or if anyone there does partake in cult activities.

    It doesn’t have anything to do with you or anyone you know. Best to just avoid and mind your own.

  9. Shinnyo-En is definitely one to steer clear of. I ran afoul of them in my early years in Japan. They are an offshoot of Shingon Buddhism, so they might seem legit at first. All the telltale signs are there, though. Love bombing, asking for money (which they call “joyful donations”), testimonials, sob stories about how wonderful the founders were, ticket-activated “mediums” disguising pressure to convert as guidance from the great beyond, it’s all there.

    The only reason I had anything to do with them was some of my Japanese teacher’s friends were with them…which I only found out after getting in touch with them for networking purposes. (I’m not Buddhist myself, but I did study different religions in undergrad for both academic and genuine interfaith purposes, so that’s the only reason I allowed myself to actually look into it.)

    I stopped associating with them once I realized just how culty they really were…as in, when they straight up tried to convert me after saying they wouldn’t. COVID and moving to another prefecture for work-related reasons gave me the perfect excuse to cut all ties with the members I knew.

    Soka Gakkai is another one to avoid, though it would appear they’re on the downswing, and most of their members aren’t as pushy about recruiting as people say they used to be. Still, be wary of anyone peddling a magic chant called “Nam’ Myoho Renge Kyo,” and/or any books by some guy called “Ikeda-sensei” as *the* best and only real fix for all your problems.

    TL;DR, if anyone asks you if you’ve ever heard of this magic chant and/or this super accommodating and oh-so-easily-accessible path that’ll instantly solve all your problems, protect you from harm, clean up your past bad karma etc. take it as a big red flag.

  10. I spent the first 10 years of my life in the ‘Roman Catholic’ cult, which is pretty active in Japan, along with a bunch of other discount-brand christian cults. Long ago I had some of the ‘Jehovah Witness’ cult members come to my door. They never came again after I asked if they accepted homosexuals.

    Here in Japan, Aum Shinrikyo owned an apartment building in my neighborhood and offered computer classes on the first floor. Aum Shinrikyu used to leave stuff in our mailboxes and sing and dance down by the station. I am pretty sure Aleph still owns the building.

    Just yesterday, I walked by a branch of the ‘Happy Science’ cult in another part of our neighborhood; Scientology has a building relatively close to Shinjuku Station here in Tokyo.

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