I'm not so happy place. I'm Jason Horton. I'm Rebecca Leib. And this is Ghost Town.

If you type happy slash science.org into your web browser, a sleek website awaits you.

Geometrical design swirl around a splashy blue background advertising a course in January called

making your way to true salvation. Other videos also flash across the screen, mostly anime

from HS Pictures Studio. You'd think it was just another new age organization in promoting

meditation and spirituality. But the happy science organization is, like its name, much more sinister,

and for the celebrity sayances, death threats, and COVID-19 cures, this organization has been

called Japan's Strangest Cult. Today we're talking about the religious group, some say,

known as Happy Science. It all began on July 15, 1986. It was then that a man named Riyuho Okawa

resigned from his position at Tomon Corporation, an earlier branch of the Toyota Company to start a

new project. And oh, what a project it would be. Okawa, born on July 7, 1956, grew up with the

name Takashi Nagakawa. He didn't become Okawa till the 80s, but we'll call him Okawa for now

for simplicity's sake. Okawa grew up not very religious and a strict middle class family that was

more into a vague sense of spiritualism if anything. Until middle school, Okawa set his dad,

copy editor Tariyoshi Nagakawa was the most important influence in his life, and he somehow turned.

He got very into religion and God and kind of sampled and followed lots of different religions,

including the Christian Church, and a new Japanese sect at the time called Seiko Nole,

which is a monotheistic nature-based organization that still exists today.

Nagakawa later became a follower of Shinji Takahashi, leader of the religious organization,

God Light Association. During his, we'll call it religion hopping, Nagakawa lectured his middle

school-age son and all kinds of things, including Kantian philosophy and Marxism. Despite his dad's

lectures, Okawa was not a good student and struggled both with school and his weight. Being overweight

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