TOKYO – Even by the standards of the alleged mafia and scammers often featured on the CPAC roster, one of this year’s speakers has an extraordinary background, including running an organization that claimed – in all seriousness – to be capable to channel Donald Trump’s deity into a magical medium.
Former political leader of a Japanese sect called Happy Science, Jay “Hiroaki” Aeba, is on the bill for Friday.
Like Trump, Aeba has been accused of fraud at home, but he doesn’t think he should be blamed.
We asked Aeba for clarification, but received no answer. He now heads the Japanese Conservative Union, although he said last year that he still believes 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 were wondering. Not only is Okawa a hip dresser and a self-proclaimed deity, but he says he has the power to channel the spirits of any person, living or dead. He claims to have had a great awakening in 1981 and then founded the Happy Science religion (Kofuku no Kagaku) in 1986. In American terms, like Billy Graham, he’s crossed with Shirley MacLaine. He channeled the spirits of Jesus, Kim Jong II, and in 2016 he even managed to get an exclusive interview with Donald Trump’s genius.
During that great meeting, Trump’s spirit rightly declared, through Okawa, that he would be the next president.
You’ve never seen anything like the ghost of Donald Trump owning a Japanese visionary and discussing New York’s cheesecake as a political metaphor. It is a pity that the God (Okawa) himself cannot make it to the CPAC, but at least his former disciple, Aeba, speaks.
CPAC, which runs through Sunday afternoon, features the best and brightest of the Republican Party and its allies, like the rebellion sparking Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, and Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp’s usual assortment of foxes and devils. Aeba is slated to play right after Donald Trump Jr. come on stage and speak about China’s threat to the US.
This won’t be the first time Aeba has spoken at the event – he even claims to be the first Japanese man to speak on the main stage of the event. If you read Aeba’s online profile in English, there don’t seem to be outright lies at first glance, but there are what the Jesuits would call some sins of negligence.
He is a self-proclaimed Conservative commentator and columnist and Chairman of the Japanese Conservative Union (JCU) which was founded in 2015. The profile says: “Jay attended his first CPAC in 2011 and founded JCU in 2015 as a counterpart to the American Conservative Union Union (ACU). In 2017, JCU and ACU jointly hosted the first-ever 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 light of the Chinese expansionism, the nuclear sector, North Korea’s threat, development and regulation of the cryptocurrency markett…. To date, 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 Happy Science cult for years and was also a key figure in the founding of their political arm, the Happiness Realization Party.
Apparently, the Happy Science sect teaches that Okawa, the founder, is a god, and only by following his teachings can one attain happiness in this life and in the next. They believe in aliens, reincarnation and multi-dimensions. Some teachings are modeled on the Buddhist Eightfold Path and preach love, wisdom, and self-reflection. But at the same time, the cult also teaches that the Nanjing massacre never happened and that Japan must scrap its pacifist constitution, rearm to its limits, and prepare for a cataclysmic war.
A weekly newspaper reported that the group’s total capital was nearly $ 1.8 billion – money made by encouraging believers to buy copies of Okawa’s many books, by getting generous donations from followers, and for self-help seminars run by the organization. were maintained. Of course they also sell prayers and charms. During the pandemic, Happy Science found itself in hot water selling ‘cures’ for COVID-19.
Happy Science – not content to be just a spiritual force – founded its own political party in 2009, and Aeba was the first party leader. Subsequently, he served as head of the research department and held many other positions within the party. In 2011, while attending his first CPAC, he was still an executive member of the Happiness Realization Party and supposedly began networking with America’s conservative elite in hopes of giving the Happiness Party an aura of legitimacy.
Aeba, who also used the alias Jikido “Jay” Aeba, and sometimes Jay H. Aeba, was born in 1967 and graduated from the elite Keio University Law Division in 1989. In 1990, he joined Happy Science headquarters and in May 2009 he became their political leader. He served as the head of the organization’s PR. In 2013 he became head of the research and investigation department. In 2015 he ostensibly left the party and founded the Japanese Conservative Union. It’s not entirely clear what relationship Aeba had with his former party after the founding of JCU, but his relationship with Happy Science seems strained – as does Trump’s relationship with the GOP. Although he said in an interview in SEIRON magazine last year that he was still a supporter of Happy Science.
On April 6, 2020, he changed his name to Hiroaki Aeba. Three days later, on April 9, Happy Science publicly denied any association with Hiroaki Aeba aka Jikido Aeba and the JCU on their website. Why? Possibly because in April last year two magazines reported a scandal within the JCU that seemed to involve Aeba in possible cryptocurrency fraud. According to the articles, Aeba raised nearly $ 9 million to create a virtual currency called Liberty. In his fundraising efforts, he used a photo of himself and Donald Trump in a pamphlet distributed to potential investors. The photo was enough to convince many of its credibility.
The Japanese media report that it is still a mystery what happened to the nearly $ 9 million in funding used to create the virtual currency and that this has sparked internal fighting within the JCU.
The JCU told The Daily Beast in an email about the alleged misconduct in cryptocurrency, “Jay [Aeba] and JCU continue to address and address this issue with the collaboration of experts, including lawyers. “
One thing is certain: the photo of Trump and Aeba is real.
There are some similarities between Aeba and Trump. They are both political opportunists, charismatic orators, adept at using celebrity connections to bolster their image – and both have been accused of fraud. For Aeba, his photos and encounters with Trump have given him an air of prestige and access to Japan’s arch-conservatives. He may have used that 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 sect’s political arm, he gave them access to the wealth and influence of the Republican Party. JCU told The Daily Beast, “Since its inception [in 2015] JCU has never had a relationship with Happy Science (HS) or the Happiness Realization Party (HRP). As for chairman Jay Aeba, he has now also completely left the HS organization and HRP. In terms of his personal religious beliefs, we don’t know, because the JCU has a policy of religious freedom for all members and staff. “
Trump supporters at CPAC may be concerned that the Republican Party is trying to move on with the Trump era, but even if he returns as a 2024 presidential candidate, Trump is mortal, unlike cult leader Okawa, he doesn’t claim he will be . reincarnated again and again and live on forever.
That’s where the Happy Science cult comes in handy. Even after he is dead, Trump’s spirit can remain in control for years to come through a magical medium.
Now, isn’t that something to be happy about?