Three more elite members of the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo foot-reading cult, including a man in charge of publishing the ghost-written books of its founder, were arrested Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation into fraud charges.
Michiaki Shiraishi, a 37-year-old 'heaven's servant' was arrested alongside his wife, Kaori, also 37, and Chiyo Matsumoto, a former instructor for the cult, for swindling over 56 million yen from 11 people, police said.
The three allegedly collaborated with cult founder Hogen Fukunaga to make the 11 attend expensive training sessions after diagnosing them " by examining their soles " with nonexistent serious illnesses from March 1994 to February 1997.
Shiraishi is an executive of a cult-related publisher and was in charge of planning and editing dozens of books published under Fukunaga's name. He reportedly supplied ghostwriters with materials to write books such as 'Byoku o Koeru Saigo no Tengyoriki' ('The Ultimate Heavenly Power to Defeat Illnesses').
Ho-no-Hana apparently printed more than 14 million copies of that book. Many cult publications were distributed free of charge around hospitals.
All 11 victims contacted the cult after reading 'Saigo no Tengyoriki', police said.
Kaori and Matsumoto were reportedly employed to talk the victims into believing Fukunaga's orders after the self-proclaimed oracle examined their soles.
The couple is denying the allegation.
Fukunaga, who was indicted Monday for swindling 25 million yen from five housewives, was also hit with the additional charges of defrauding the 11 on the same day.
Police are questioning 15 other cult members, including Fukunaga's mother, who is believed to be the kingpin controlling the founder.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on Monday indicted Hogen Fukunaga, 55, founder of the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo religious group, and seven other group executives on charges of fraud over its methods of collecting money from participants in its seminars.
Fukunaga had set target turnout figures for the group's training seminars that members were required to meet. As a reward, Fukunaga offered tens of thousands of yen to members each time they successfully solicited participants.
One employee received close to 200 million yen over a period of about six years. Fukunaga allegedly encouraged cult members to solicit participants as a "token of joy."
According to investigators, Fukunaga set seminar turnout targets at more than 10 of its nationwide branches and ordered members to meet the quotas. One branch, for instance, was required to solicit 3,000 participants within a month.
Ho-no-Hana received 1.25 million yen to 2.5 million yen in fees from each participant in its four-night seminars. Participants were also encouraged to purchase hanging scrolls and picture frames for several million yen to several tens of millions of yen. According to investigators, rewards were paid to members from these incomes.
Fukunaga beat employees who failed to meet quotas, while financial perks were offered to those that met their targets, investigators said, adding that Ho-no-Hana increased the number of seminar participants by using this carrot-and-stick policy.
TOKYO, May 30 (Kyodo) - Police on Tuesday arrested three members of the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo foot-reading cult on suspicion of defrauding 11 people out of 56 million yen between 1994 and 1997, police said.
Those arrested included Michiaki Shiraishi, 37, manager of a publishing company allegedly connected to the cult, and his wife Kaori, also 37, police said.
Both Shiraishi and his wife deny the allegations.
Hogen Fukunaga, founder and former leader of the cult, and 10 other members of the group were served fresh arrest warrants Monday on the same fraud suspicions.
The three suspects allegedly examined the soles of the 11 victims' feet and told them that they and members of their family would suffer incurable diseases unless they followed the ''voice of heaven'' which Fukunaga claimed only he could hear, police officials said.
Police also allege Shiraishi was in charge of distributing accounts of miraculous experiences attributed to believers to ghostwriters for Fukunaga who wrote a book published by his company, they said.
Many of the 11 victims approached the cult after reading the book, the officials said, adding that some 14 million copies of the book were printed, with many handed out at hospitals and train stations to recruit followers.
The victims, believing the bogus stories in the book on cures for cancer, came to the cult facilities asking for advice, the officials said.
TOKYO, May 29 (Kyodo) -Prosecutors on Monday indicted Hogen Fukunaga, founder and former leader of the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo foot-reading cult, and seven of its senior members on charges of fraud.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office said 55-year-old Fukunaga and the seven, including the group's 54-year-old, No. 2 man Yasunori Ri, swindled five housewives out of 25 million yen between 1994 and 1996.
The five women went to Fukunaga for help with illnesses from which they or their family members were suffering, the indictment says.
Conspiring with his aides, Fukunaga examined the soles of their feet and told them that they or their family members would develop cancer unless they followed the ''voice of heaven,'' which was instructing the women to pay 25 million yen to undergo Ho-no-Hana training, it said.
Fukunaga, born Teruyoshi Fukunaga, started preaching in 1980, claiming to be the world's final savior following Jesus Christ and Buddha. He based his claim on what he called the ''voice of heaven.''
After the arrest of Fukunaga and the seven on May 9, the guru allegedly admitted to investigators that he had met the five victims. ''I have surely met them and conveyed the voice of heaven to them, but I don't remember its contents,'' police quoted him as saying.
The arrests were the culmination of nearly four years of police investigations into the cult, which is suspected of defrauding at least 30,000 people out of more than 87 billion yen.
The mayor and assembly chairman of Fuji city, in Shizuoka Prefecture, on Friday asked the government to dissolve the Honohana Sanpogyo religious cult, which is headquartered in the city.
Mayor Kiyomi Suzuki and Fuji city Assembly Chairman Sadahiko Matsumoto visited Fukushiro Nukaga, deputy chief Cabinet secretary, at the Prime Minister's Official
Residence and handed him a written request urging the Cultural Agency to dissolve the
cult.In reply, Nukaga told Suzuki, "We fully understand the situation in Fuji."
The mayor and the chairman, accompanied by other officials from Fuji, made the same request to Justice Minister Hideo Usui and Education Minister Hirofumi Nakasone.
The Fuji city delegation called on Usui as prosecutors are able to ask courts to dissolve religious cults.
Suzuki, pointing out that police claim Honohana is a fraudulent group, told Usui the cult has grown larger since setting up in the city about 13 years ago and has become a nuisance.
Usui told the delegation that he takes their request seriously but will deal with the case carefully and act with the Cultural Agency, as Honohana is currently under investigation.
Nakasone told the delegation that he will discuss the issue with organizations concerned and observe developments in the investigation.
Suzuki and the others also visited Home Affairs Minister Kosuke Hori.
On Monday, the assembly passed a resolution calling for the cult to be dissolved after the May 9 arrest of cult founder Hogen Fukunaga, whose real name is Teruyoshi Fukunaga, and other top cult members on suspicion of fraud.
Fukunaga and the top cult members are suspected of defrauding three women out of a total of 22 million yen after "reading" the soles of their feet between November 1994
and June 1995 and offering bogus cures for illnesses suffered by their relatives.
According to investigations, the group is suspected of having collected about 100 billion yen in "training fees" from thousands of followers.
Tokio, May 26 (Kyodo) - The mayor and assembly chairman of Fuji city in Shizuoka Prefecture on Friday asked the government to dissolve the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo religious cult, which is headquartered in the city.
Mayor Kiyomi Suzuki and Fuji city Assembly Chairman Sadahiko Matsumoto visited Fukushiro Nukaga, deputy chief cabinet secretary, at the prime minister's official residence and handed him a written request urging the Cultural Agency to dissolve the cult.
In reply, Nukaga told Suzuki, ''We fully understand the situation in Fuji.''
The mayor and the chairman, accompanied by other officials from Fuji, made the same request to Justice Minister Hideo Usui and Education Minister Hirofumi Nakasone.
The Fuji city delegation called on Usui as prosecutors are able to ask courts to dissolve religious cults.
Suzuki, noting that police claim Ho-no-Hana is a fraudulent group, told Usui the cult has grown larger since setting up in the city 12 to 13 years ago and has become a nuisance.
Usui told the delegation he takes their request seriously but will deal with the case carefully together with the Cultural Agency as Ho-no-Hana is currently under investigation.
Nakasone told the delegation he will discuss the issue with organizations concerned and watch developments in the investigation.
Suzuki and the others also visited Home Affairs Minister Kosuke Hori.
On Monday, the assembly passed a resolution calling for dissolution of the cult following the May 9 arrest of cult founder Hogen Fukunaga, 55, whose real name is Teruyoshi Fukunaga, and other senior cult members on suspicion of fraud.
Fukunaga and the senior cult members are suspected of defrauding three women out of a total of 22 million yen after reading the soles of their feet between November 1994 and June 1995 and offering bogus cures for illnesses suffered by their family members and relatives.
According to investigations, the group is suspected of having collected about 100 billion yen in ''training fees'' from thousands of followers.
Thickset and standing head and shoulders above most of his followers, Hogen Fukunaga, founder of the disgraced "sole-searching" cult Ho-no-Hana Sanpogyo, is a mountain of a man. And if Asahi Geino is anything to go by, the accused fraud also loved mountin' women.
"Fukunaga adored women of any type. He had lovers in Fuji [Shizuoka Prefecture], Kanagawa Prefecture and Tokyo. He'd get in his posh, foreign-made car and drive around to visit them whenever it tickled his fancy.
"Traveling around the country giving lectures also gave him a chance to meet his mistresses. Altogether, I think he had about 30 women on the run," a former cult member tells Shukan Gendai. "Some of them even ended getting shacked up in swank apartments and he'd hand out to them monthly allowances extending up to 10 million yen."
Money also seemed to flow into the hands of the man who claimed to have the ability to hear the "Voice of Heaven," according to Spa! Despite only having begun Prophesying about 20 years ago, Fukunaga was able to reap some 87 billion yen from his roughly 20,000 devoted followers, which led indirectly to his May 9 arrest for fraud.
And when Fukunaga wasn't messing around with women, he was playing footsies of a different kind.
Ho-no-Hana Sanpogyo thrived on Fukunaga's claimed ability to be able to "read" the soles of people's feet. The ailing or infirm - physically and mentally - thronged to the hear what the "Voice of Heaven" had to tell them through Fukunaga's reading of their sole, footing a hefty fee in the process.
Shukan Gendai claims the cult's foot-reading arose not because of Fukunaga's desire to cure the people who sought his aid, but for more carnal reasons.
"To read the soles, a woman would have to remove her shoes and socks or stockings. Fukunaga ordered a private room set up for women wearing stockings," a cult member says to Shukan Gendai. "He used to love going into that room alone with pretty women."
Despite Fukunaga's apparent penchant for playing around, Focus says he was really just a mommy's boy. The weekly claims Fukunaga's 79-year-old mother was the brains behind Ho-no-Hana's moneymaking schemes, a point police seem to agree with as she was arrested on the same charges as her son. Fukunaga was undoubtedly devoted to his mother, setting up life-sized statues of the woman at some of the cult's bases. But even then, Fukunaga still seems to have been somewhat less than sincere. Originally, the statues were to have been pure gold, but in the end were made of bronze and given a 3 million yen plating job. "It shows that even with all that money," Focus says, "Fukunaga was really cheap at heart."
The founder of the Honohana Sanpogyo religious group met with the governor of Nagasaki Prefecture in the spring of 1992 and maintained that a "voice from heaven" said the eruption of Mount Unzen would stop by the year's end if prefectural residents "awaken to the real way of life," it was learned Saturday.
Police said they found evidence that Honohana was trying to set up a branch in Nagasaki at the time.
Investigators are currently looking into allegations that the cult -- which makes diagnoses of the health and other conditions of its followers by reading the soles of their feet -- had defrauded followers of billions of yen.
Cult founder Hogen Fukunaga, who was arrested along with 12 other cultists earlier this month on suspicion of fraud, approached then Nagasaki Gov. Isamu Takada, posing as an ecologist and professor of ecological philosophy.
An interview of the pair was printed in a magazine issued by Honohana and was used as material to solicit new followers. Police said they were looking into the incident as another way in which the cult tried to increase its membership.
At the time, protracted volcanic activity on the mountain, located in southeastern Nagasaki Prefecture, had been wearing the patience of local residents thin. It erupted for the first time in roughly 200 years in 1990, and an all-clear was not issued until 1996.
According to the investigation so far, the interview between Fukunaga, whose real given name is Teruyoshi, and Takada took place at a hotel in the city of Nagasaki. Local business leaders were also present. The story appeared in August 1992 issues of the group's magazine Earth Aid.
In the interview, Fukunaga said he read the soles of some residents of Shimabara, a city near the volcano, and purported that they were all dirty. "It's no wonder the heavens are angry," he said.
He went on to claim that "if 7,000 residents in the prefecture find the true path of life, the eruption will end on Dec. 29 this year."
In response, Takada explained the scope of the disaster and said that unless those affected had the determination to stand on their own two feet, no amount of assistance would have any significance.
Investigators of the fraud case said they assume Fukunaga came to the figure 7,000 because there were around 6,000 people who had been forced to evacuate or affected by the eruption in some way.
Furthermore, a separate article that also appeared in the same edition fueled the flames of anxiety, saying that unless residents changed their way of life and stopped the Unzen eruption, "posterity would walk a path of thorns."
In the end, the cult was unable to win a substantial number of new followers in the Nagasaki area. and abandoned efforts to create a branch there, police said.
Meanwhile, Takada told Kyodo News he did not know at the time that Fukunaga represented a special religious group because the guru was introduced as an ecologist.
"Looking back now, there may have been some people who believed (the cult) after reading the story, but at the time I thought he was a person who just wanted to do something for the victims of the disaster," he said, adding that the cult never gave him any money nor asked for donations.
Ho-no-Hana Sanpogyo, a religious organization under police investigation on suspicion of fraud, may have offered another 15 million yen or so to a former influential member of the municipal assembly of Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture, in addition to the 5 million yen the group is already believed to have given him, police said Thursday.
The donations that the 63-year-old former assembly member allegedly received from the religious organization totaled about 20 million yen, police said. Police are now investigating to determine Ho-no-Hana's intent in making the donations and believe that the money may have been offered in a bid to establish the organization's headquarters in the city.
Ho-no-Hana, whose founder is Hogen Fukunaga, was registered as a religious organization with the Shizuoka prefectural government in March 1987 and began the construction of Fuji Tenseimura, its headquarters, in Fuji the following year.
The former assembly member was questioned in December, when police searched his house and the religious organization's facilities. As a result, it was discovered that the former assembly member received about 150,000 yen a month from Ho-no-Hana for several years starting in about 1997, which totaled about 5 million yen, and also received another 15 million yen or so in the same period, police said.
Senior members of the cult Honohana Sanpogyo received millions of yen in kickbacks around 1996 from several companies engaged in the construction of a cult facility in Tokyo, sources within the group said Thursday.
The sources said cult founder Hogen Fukunaga, 55, and other senior Honohana members received the money after demanding 40 million yen from the firms involved. The construction of the facility in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward was completed last year at a cost of 4 billion yen.
Fukunaga, whose real first name is Teruyoshi, and 11 senior members of Honohana were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of defrauding followers. Fukunaga stepped down as leader of the group in January.
Police are questioning Fukunaga and the companies that won contracts for the construction about the alleged kickbacks, police sources said.
According to the police and Honohana sources, the building, located in an upscale residential district, was used as a gathering hall where Fukunaga gave lectures.
The structure comprises two stories above and two stories below ground level. A major Tokyo-based general contractor undertook part of the underground construction, and another construction firm took over the project following a series of design changes. Neither firm was identified.
The Honohana senior members are suspected of asking the contractors, their subcontractors and go-betweens to offer cash kickbacks, according to the sources.
The unnamed contractor that did part of the underground work said it will not comment on its individual contracts.
Ho-no-Hana Sanpogyo, a religious organization under police investigation on suspicion of fraud, offered about 5 million yen to an influential member of the municipal assembly of Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture, around 1987, police said Wednesday.
Police are investigating whether the donation was linked to Ho-no-Hana's successful application for registration as a religious organization in the prefecture, as similar applications were rejected in Tokyo, as well as in Chiba and Oita prefectures, at about the same time.
Hogen Fukunaga, founder of the religious organization, and 11 other leading members were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of cheating a large number of people out of a huge amount of money.
A 63-year-old former municipal assembly member who served as speaker of the assembly is alleged to have taken the money. Police searched his home in December after searching the religious organization's headquarters in the city and other facilities.
The former assembly member allegedly received about 150,000 yen a month for several years before and after March 1987, when Ho-no-Hana was registered as a religious organization with the Shizuoka prefectural government. The donations totaled about 5 million yen.
He told investigators, "I gave advice, such as telling (the religious organization) which office handled such applications, and was rewarded for my help."
"But I did not offer any preferential treatment to the religious organization when it established a foothold in the city of Fuji," police quoted him as saying.
Though Ho-no-Hana asked the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Chiba and Oita prefectural governments to register the religious organization all within a short space of time, all three local governments rejected the request.
After the Shizuoka prefectural government registered the organization, Ho-no-Hana began buying about 1.8 hectares of land in the city in 1988 and began constructing Fuji Tenseimura, the facility that would eventually function as its headquarters, at a cost of about 4 billion yen.
The former assembly member was also associated with the construction company that was awarded the contract for the construction of the facility.
Police said it was likely that Ho-no-Hana offered money to the former assembly member to help get the organization registered with the prefectural government and let it construct a base in the city.
In an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun, the former assembly member said, "I received the donation. I do not wish to comment on whether I gave help" to Ho-no-Hana.
With regard to the organization's bids to be registered elsewhere, an official of the Tokyo metropolitan government said, "As this happened more than 10 years ago, we have no way of confirming what happened." The two prefectural governments also said they did not have details of the applications.
Cultists sent to prosecutors
Meanwhile, a joint investigation squad from the Metropolitan Police Department and Shizuoka prefectural police sent Hogen Fukunaga, whose real first name is Teruyoshi, and the 11 leading members of Ho-no-Hana who were also arrested Tuesday to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on Wednesday.
Police also sent papers on Fusako Imoto, 79, Fukunaga's mother and a former chief director of the religious organization, to prosecutors on suspicion of fraud.
Imoto has been hospitalized in Tokyo since late April. When police questioned her with her doctor's permission, she told investigators, "Though I have received money, I did not know any fraud had been committed."
Hogen Fukunaga, the founder of the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo cult who is under arrest for fraud charges, apparently spent billions of yen in commissions in order to set up meetings with world luminaries such as Pope John Paul II, opportunities which he commercially exploited, sources said.
When Fukunaga, 55, met the luminaries, members of the cult took photos of them, and used those pictures as lures to talk people into joining the cult, sources close to the organization, best known for its "foot-reading" method, said.
The amount Fukunaga spent arranging the meetings was huge - up to 100 million yen for one appointment.
The celebrities Fukunaga met include former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Reports on the meetings were featured in the cult's bulletin.
"For a leader of an unknown religious organization with no particular achievements, it was only with money that they were able to buy the celebrities' time," a source familiar with the Ho-no-Hana cult said.
But subsequent reports carried in the bulletin were sometimes fraudulent - dressing up mere chats between Fukunaga and the celebrities to look like in-depth discussions.
According to investigators, however, Fukunaga was determined to get healthy returns from these extravagant expenditures.
Fukunaga had a ring which the pontiff allegedly blessed during the self-proclaimed oracle's visit to Vatican. The cult made imitations of the ring and sold them to followers for between 100,000 yen and 300,000 yen each.
The ring episode stems from a visit Fukunaga made to the Vatican in September 1995, when he had an audience with the Pope at St. Peter's Cathedral and received a papal blessing on a diamond ring brought by a business companion who was traveling with Fukunaga.
On his way back to Japan, Fukunaga sold the blessed ring to a traveling companion and bought another ring in New Delhi.
Soon afterward, the Ho-no-Hana cult advertised in a bulletin that the Pope had presented three sets of rings to Fukunaga and offered them to its followers for a hefty price - 300,000 yen for a gold band, 200,000 yen for silver, and 100,000 yen for bronze.
Police suspect that the cult had the gold ring Fukunaga bought in New Delhi copied in Japan for the purpose of selling them to followers.
The person who bought the ring that the Pope had blessed from Fukunaga told police that the cult "fabricated everything."
TOKYO, May 11 (Kyodo) - Senior members of the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo religious group received millions of yen around 1996 as kickbacks from several companies engaged in construction of a Ho-no-Hana facility in Tokyo, group sources said Thursday.
The sources said the cult's founder, Hogen Fukunaga, 55, and some senior Ho-no-Hana members received the money after demanding 40 million yen from firms involved in building the facility in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, which was completed last year at a cost of 4 billion yen.
Fukunaga, whose real first name is Teruyoshi, and 11 other senior members of Ho-no-Hana were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of defrauding followers.
Fukunaga stepped down as leader of the group in January.
Police are questioning Fukunaga and companies which won contracts for the construction about the alleged kickbacks, police sources said.
According to the police sources and Ho-no-Hana sources, the building, with two stories above and two below ground level and located in an expensive residential area of Shibuya, was used as a hall where Fukunaga give lectures and the faithful gathered.
A major Tokyo-based general construction contractor undertook part of the underground construction, and another construction firm took over the building project following a series of design changes.
The Ho-no-Hana senior members are suspected of requesting the contractors, their subcontractors and go-betweens to offer kickbacks in cash, according to the sources.
The contractor which did part of the underground work told Kyodo News it will not comment on its individual contracts.
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