# Ho No Hana Sanpogyo · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/cults/107-ho-no-hana-sanpogyo/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
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The Cult Dossier · No. 107 · Eastern-Derived
Ho No Hana Sanpogyo
the Foot Reading Cult
1987 – 2001 · Japan
XII. THE WIDER FIELD — CONCISE ENTRIES
Fully religious
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1987 Founded.
- 1987–2000 By one widely cited estimate the group took about 60 BILLION YEN from more than 10,000 people over thirteen years; mass civil litigation follows.
- 9 MAY 2000 Fukunaga, then 55, is arrested in Tokyo with ten of his lieutenants.
- MARCH 2001 The religious corporation and its associated body, EARTH AIDS, are disbanded as insolvent.
- JULY 2005 The TOKYO DISTRICT COURT sentences Fukunaga to TWELVE YEARS for defrauding 31 people of nearly 150 million yen in religious training fees. Nine senior members also receive verdicts; all are convicted.
### Its people
### Hogen Fukunaga
—
Founder, Ho No Hana Sanpogyo · born 1945 · active 1987–2001
Before the law. CONVICTED of fraud, 2005; 12 years.
Where things stand. RELEASED EARLY IN MARCH 2014 AS A MODEL PRISONER — this file previously said only 'sentence served', which understated it. No death has been reported and he has withdrawn from public view. THE GROUP DID NOT DIE WITH THE PROSECUTION, WHICH IS THE POINT WORTH RECORDING. A REVIVAL FESTIVAL WAS HELD IN 2015, the year after his release, with substantial activity resuming. IN 2018 HE SEPARATED FROM THE SUCCESSOR BODY, the Third Salvation Jikitoku-kai; a claimant styling himself the SECOND-GENERATION HOGEN then founded a group called THE HAPPY TREE OF HEAVEN, and the Jikitoku-kai publicly disavowed him, stating that anyone claiming to be a successor has no relationship with the organisation or with Fukunaga himself. The case remains a standard reference in Japanese consumer protection law. SOURCED FROM JAPANESE-LANGUAGE MATERIAL; the English-language record carries almost none of this.
- 1987 Founds the group.
- 1990s ~30,000 members; an estimated 100 million dollars extracted.
- 2001 Arrested for fraud.
- 2005 CONVICTED; 12 years. The organisation is dissolved.
Checked 2026-08-24
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