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

HOGEN FUKUNAGA, who declared himself the reincarnation of both Christ and the Buddha.

What it worshipped and taught

Diagnosis of a person's spiritual and physical condition by examining the soles of their feet, followed by the sale of extremely expensive training courses to avert the predicted catastrophe. Targets were told they had cancer or that their families would die.

Who was in it

Hogen Fukunaga; roughly 30,000 members at peak; the thousands of civil plaintiffs.

How it ended, or where it stands

DISSOLVED FOR DEBT AND SEPARATELY DESTROYED BY A CRIMINAL CONVICTION — TWO EVENTS THIS FILE HAD COMPRESSED INTO ONE. Fukunaga and senior members were arrested in MAY 2000; the religious corporation and its associated body were disbanded in MARCH 2001 as insolvent; and the TOKYO DISTRICT COURT sentenced Fukunaga to TWELVE YEARS for fraud. The proven conduct was defrauding 31 believers of NEARLY 150 MILLION YEN by reading the soles of their feet, diagnosing illnesses including cancer, and selling them expensive seminars as the cure. Checked 2026-09-07.

The dead

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Of note

A pure financial-predation model with religious packaging; a standard reference case in Japanese consumer protection law.

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

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Founder, Ho No Hana Sanpogyo · born 1945 · active 1987–2001

Declared himself the reincarnation of both Christ and the Buddha and built a movement on diagnosing spiritual and physical condition by examining the soles of the feet — then selling extremely expensive courses to avert the catastrophe he had just diagnosed. Targets were told they had cancer or that their families would die. An estimated 100 million dollars was extracted from around 30,000 members before mass civil litigation and criminal prosecution destroyed it.

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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