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The Ex-leader of a "Foot Cult" in Japan Arrested
The Japanese police arrested 13 senior officials of the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo religious group, including its founder, Hogen Fukunaga,on May 9, on suspicion of swindling former followers out of a huge sum of money in "training fees," according to sources.
The headquarters reportedly obtained arrest warrants for the 54-year-old No. 2 leader of the religious group; a former key member in charge of training, 60; a former instructor involved in making a "foot-sole diagnosis" manual, 33; and others in addition to Fukunaga.
The group, based in Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture, allegedly has garnered over 80 billion yen through what it calls "foot-sole diagnosis," or the reading of the soles of its followers' feet, and through "training," to help cure illnesses in followers and their families.
Of the more than 80 billion yen collected from followers, the group drew about 70 billion yen from "training fees," and sales of various items.
The remaining sum of more than 10-billion yen came from other sources, such as book publishing and restaurants linked to the cult, police said Monday.
According to investigators, the group is suspected to have swindled several tens of millions of yen from several people by diagnosing them as potential cancer victims and sending them to a five-day training session for a cure. It also persuaded them to purchase expensive items such as hanging scrolls, they said.
In the course of questioning about 300 people, including followers, police investigators have learned that the group canvassed would-be followers without telling them that it was a religious organization, and that Fukunaga had instructed his subordinates to lure potential followers into the group, even by lying. The group has given its dubious training to 30,000 people so far.
A large number of the group's officials were allegedly involved in canvassing followers to edit books written by ghostwriters for Fukunaga, to encourage followers to take sole examinations, to take care of followers during their training and to manage followers and group funds.
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