TOKYO – Even by the standards of the supposed madmen and swindlers commonly found on the CPAC list, one of this year’s speakers has an extraordinary experience that includes leading an organization that claimed – in all seriousness – to be able to channel Donald Trump’s guardian divinity through a magical medium.
Former political leader of a Japanese cult called Happy Science, Jay “Hiroaki” Aeba, is on the bill on Friday.
Like Trump, Aeba has been accused of fraud in his country, but he doesn’t think it should be used against him.
We asked Aeba for clarification, but got no response. He is now the head of the Japanese Conservative Union, although he said last year that he still believed in Happy Science.
Aeba’s guru Ryuho Okawa claims to be a Venusian god named El Cantare, who created life on earth – and is also a reincarnation of the Buddha, in case you are wondering. Okawa is not only an elegant stylist and a self-proclaimed deity, but he says he has the power to channel the spirits of anyone, living or dead. He claims to have had a major awakening in 1981 and later founded the Happy Science (Kofuku no Kagaku) religion in 1986. In American terms, he is like Billy Graham crossed with Shirley MacLaine. He channeled the spirits of Jesus, Kim Jong II, and in 2016, he even got an exclusive interview with Donald Trump’s guardian spirit.
At that incredible meeting, Trump’s spirit correctly stated, via Okawa, that he would be the next president.
You’ve never seen anything like the spirit of Donald Trump owning a Japanese visionary and discussing New York cheesecake as a political metaphor. It is a pity that God (Okawa) himself cannot go to CPAC, but at least his former disciple, Aeba, is speaking.
The CPAC, which runs until Sunday afternoon, features the best and brightest of the Republican Party and its allies, such as the uprising that Missouri Senator Josh Hawley stirred up, and the usual variety of foxes and demons from Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp. Aeba should take the podium shortly after Donald Trump Jr and talk about China’s threat to the US
This will not be the first time that Aeba will speak at the event – in fact, he claims to be the first Japanese to speak on the main stage of the event. If you read Aeba’s online profile in English, there doesn’t seem to be absolute lies at first glance, but there are what the Jesuits would call some sins of omission.
He is a self-proclaimed conservative commentator and columnist and president of the Japanese Conservative Union (JCU), which was founded in 2015. The profile says: “Jay participated in his first CPAC in 2011 and founded JCU in 2015 as a counterpart to the American Conservative Union (ACU). In 2017, JCU and ACU co-hosted the first international CPAC in Tokyo, where experts from across the Indo-Pacific gathered to discuss critical issues such as the region’s economic and military security in the face of Chinese expansionism, the nuclear threat posed by Korea North, the development and cryptocurrency market regulationt…. So far, JCU and ACU have hosted four Japanese CPACs. ”
This is all true. What his biography does not mention is that Aeba was a member of the Japanese cult of Happy Science for many years and also an important figure in the creation of his political arm, the Happiness Realization Party.
Ostensibly, the Happy Science cult teaches that Okawa, the founder, is a god, and only by following his teachings can one obtain happiness in this life and the next. They believe in aliens, reincarnation and multidimensions. Some of the teachings are modeled after the eightfold Buddhist path and preach love, wisdom and self-reflection. However, at the same time, the cult also teaches that the Nanjing massacre never happened and that Japan must abandon its pacifist constitution, rearm itself to the maximum and prepare for cataclysmic war.
A weekly magazine reported that the group’s total capital was close to $ 1.8 billion – money earned by encouraging believers to buy copies of Okawa’s many books, extracting generous donations from followers and for self-help seminars conducted by the organization. Of course, they also sell prayers and amulets. During the pandemic, Happy Science found itself in trouble for selling “cures” to COVID-19.
Happy Science – not content with just being a spiritual power – launched its own political party in 2009, and Aeba was the party’s first leader. He went on to serve as head of the research division and held many other positions within the party. In 2011, while participating in his first CPAC, he was still an executive member of the Happiness Achievement Party and presumably began to engage with the conservative elite of the United States in hopes of gaining an aura of legitimacy for the Happiness Party.
Aeba, who also used the pseudonym Jikido “Jay” Aeba, and sometimes goes by Jay H. Aeba, was born in 1967 and graduated from the elite of the Keio University Law Division in 1989. In 1990, he joined Happy’s headquarters Science and in May 2009, he became its political leader. He served as head of public relations for the organization. In 2013, he became the head of the research and investigation division. In 2015, he ostensibly left the party and created the Japanese Conservative Union. It is not entirely clear what kind of relationship Aeba had with his former party after the creation of the JCU, but his relations with Happy Science seem tense – as is Trump’s relationship with the GOP. Although, in an interview published last year in SEIRON magazine, he said he still believed in Happy Science.
On April 6, 2020, he changed his name to Hiroaki Aeba. Three days later, on April 9, Happy Science publicly denied on its website any connection with Hiroaki Aeba, also known as Jikido Aeba and JCU. Why? Possibly because in April last year, two magazines reported a scandal within the JCU that seemed to implicate Aeba in a possible fraud involving cryptocurrency. According to the articles, Aeba raised nearly nine million dollars to create a virtual currency called Liberty. In his fundraising efforts, he used a photo of himself with Donald Trump in a pamphlet distributed to potential investors. The photo was enough to convince many of his credibility.
Japanese media reports that it is still a mystery what happened to the nearly nine million dollars in funds used to create the virtual currency that resulted in internal strife within the JCU.
The JCU told The Daily Beast in an email about the cryptocurrency’s alleged misconduct, “Jay [Aeba] and JCU are addressing and addressing this issue with the cooperation of experts, including lawyers. “
One thing is certain: the photo of Trump and Aeba is real.
There are some similarities between Aeba and Trump. Both are political opportunists, charismatic speakers, adept at using celebrity connections to improve their image – and both have been accused of fraud. For Aeba, his photos and meetings with Trump gave him an air of prestige and access among Japanese arch-conservatives. He may have used this for his own personal gain, rather than for the benefit of the Happy Science cult, but it seems to be working well.
While Aeba was a member of the Happiness Realization Party, the cult’s political arm, he gave them access to the wealth and influence of the Republican Party. JCU told The Daily Beast: “Since its establishment [in 2015] JCU has never had any relationship with Happy Science (HS) or the Happiness Realization Party (HRP). As for President Jay Aeba, he has also completely left the HS organization and HRP now. In terms of your personal religious belief, we don’t know why the JCU has a religious freedom policy for all members and employees. ”
Trump supporters in the CPAC may fear that the Republican Party is trying to leave the Trump era, but even if he returns as a presidential candidate in 2024, Trump is deadly, unlike cult leader Okawa, he does not claim he will be reincarnated again and again and will live forever.
That’s where the Happy Science cult comes in handy. Even after his death, Trump’s ghost can continue to command through a magical medium for many years.
Now, isn’t that something to be happy about?