Happy Science, known in Japanese as Kōfuku-no-Kagaku and originally named the Institute for Research in Human Happiness, is a Japanese new religious movement founded by Ryuho Okawa on October 6, 1986. Okawa was born in 1956 in the rural Tokushima region of Japan and later graduated from the University of Tokyo. He went on to work as a market trader for the trading firm TOMEN Corporation.
Okawa was raised by parents with diverse spiritual beliefs and developed personal views about spirits and the afterlife at an early age. In 1981, he said he was contacted by divine spirits, including Shinji Takahashi of the God Light Association, who told him that his destiny was to establish a new religion.
Over the following several years, Okawa claimed to channel numerous historical and religious figures. He eventually published the purported communications in a series of books that became popular enough for him to resign from TOMEN Corporation in July 1986. Okawa founded Happy Science later that year, establishing its mission as bringing happiness to humanity by spreading what he described as truth. The Japanese government officially certified the organization as a religious body in March 1991.
Between 1987 and 1988, Okawa published several of Happy Science’s core texts, including The Laws of the Sun, The Golden Laws, and The Laws of Eternity. These books established much of the movement’s theology, which centers on the worship of El Cantare, a supreme deity who was first born on Earth 330 million years ago and has been reincarnated throughout history as figures including Hermes and Shakyamuni Buddha. Okawa identified himself as the current incarnation of El Cantare and later claimed to incorporate the spirits of multiple historical leaders simultaneously.
During the 1990s and 2000s, Happy Science expanded its institutional presence in Japan and abroad. The movement opened its first overseas branch in New York in 1994 and later expanded into countries including Australia, Brazil, Uganda, and the United Kingdom.
Beyond its places of worship, known as Shoja, Happy Science developed a media and publishing network that included the publisher IRH Press, educational institutions and animation production entities such as HS Pictures Studio. The organization produced numerous full-length animated films intended to communicate its theology and attract new members.
The movement also entered Japanese politics. In 2009, Okawa established the Happiness Realization Party, a Japanese political entity that advocated military expansion and fiscal conservatism while denying historical events including the Nanjing Massacre.
As Happy Science expanded, the organization also faced allegations from former members, media outlets and cult-intervention specialists that it operated as a cult. Critics pointed to what they described as aggressive recruitment tactics, the commercialization of spiritual materials and the concentration of authority in Okawa.
Happy Science claimed a global membership of more than 12 million people across more than 160 countries, but critics and former members disputed those figures. In 2020, Okawa’s estranged son, Hiroshi Okawa, a former intended successor, publicly described the organization as a cult. He characterized his father’s channeling sessions as performances and estimated that the movement’s actual active global membership was about 13,000.
The organization’s practices also became the subject of public controversy over several decades. During the 1990s, Happy Science became involved in a high-profile rivalry with the Aum Shinrikyo cult. The conflict included a failed attempt by Aum members to assassinate Okawa using the nerve agent VX.
The movement faced further criticism during the COVID-19 pandemic for selling what it described as “spiritual vaccines” and lecture recordings for hundreds of dollars. The products were promoted with claims that they could prevent or cure COVID-19, despite lacking scientific evidence for those claims.
Happy Science also faced criticism over efforts to suppress media opposition. In 2022, for example, the organization was accused of pressuring publisher Shueisha to cancel a manga that was critical of fringe religions.
Ryuho Okawa died on March 2, 2023, at age 66 after collapsing at his home in Tokyo. His death left the movement’s future leadership uncertain as Japanese new religious organizations faced increased public scrutiny following the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Key Sources:
Agence France Presse. (2023, March 3). Happy Science cult leader Okawa dies.
Donelly, B. (2015, November 2). Blooming ‘Happy Science’ cult channels Disney, Gandhi, Jesus and Thatcher. The Age.
Kestenbaum, S. (2020, April 16). Inside the Fringe Japanese Religion That Claims It Can Cure Covid-19. The New York Times.
McNeal, S. (2022, September 5). The Japanese Cult Behind These Obscure Anime. Game Rant.
Saint-Guily, S. (2012, October 3). Happy Science is the laziest cult ever. VICE.