Correcting the Blasphemy and False Articles Against Our Church by Weekly Shincho

In the September 11th (Wednesday) issue of 'Weekly Shincho' (September 19th edition), an article was published with the headline 'Ryuho Okawa of Happy Science Group Doing Business with the Guardian Spirit of 'Atsuko Maeda'', which blasphemes President Ryuho Okawa of the Happy Science Group and its religious activities. Therefore, as the Happy Science Group Public Relations Division, we hereby publish our protest.

A Pathetic 'Plagiarized Article' Unworthy of a Major Media Outlet

The recent Weekly Shincho article criticizes the book 'The Secret of AKB48's Hit: Learning from the Marketing Genius Yasushi Akimoto' open_in_new as 'bait-and-switch', but it completely failed to interview or obtain comments from Yasushi Akimoto and Atsuko Maeda, who are the subjects of the spiritual messages. It merely reused the core content of the 'Weekly Flash' article published two days earlier, making it a truly pathetic 'plagiarized article'. Furthermore, the subtitle suggests that 'the public calls this a 'greedy business'', as if criticism from buyers is being received, yet no such facts are recorded in the article. Ultimately, it is just the Weekly Shincho editorial team, led by Editor-in-Chief Itsushi Sakai, expanding on their delusions of victimhood from the 'Weekly Flash' article.

A Mere Outsider Who Cannot Discern the Level of Spiritual Ability or Sacredness Has No Right to Comment on Religion!

Moreover, they crudely label sacred spiritual messages, which aim to prove that humans are residents of the real world they originally belong to, as 'Itako performance', repeatedly engaging in blasphemy and slander. This is an act of blasphemy against religion that damages the sacred faith of believers and potential believers worldwide, and it is absolutely unforgivable.

If Weekly Shincho knowingly used such vile expressions, at the very least, the magazine has an obligation to investigate whether it can summon all surviving Itako nationwide, including 'Saito Juichi', the former chief steward of Shinchosha, 'Guardian Spirit of Shinchosha President', 'Guardian Spirit of Weekly Shincho Editor-in-Chief', 'Guardian Spirit of Yasushi Akimoto', and 'Guardian Spirit of Atsuko Maeda'. Without conducting such actual verification, if they cannot discern the difference in the level of spiritual ability and sacredness between President Okawa's advanced spiritual abilities to summon Christ and Buddha and the Itako's ability to summon spirits of family and acquaintances, then Weekly Shincho is merely an 'outsider' regarding religion and cannot escape the accusation of being a 'fraudulent business trying to sell fake articles' using national newspaper advertisements. Moreover, Weekly Shincho has no right to comment on President Okawa's spiritual messages.

Weekly Shincho Cannot Even Understand the Difference Between 'Spiritual Messages' and 'Automatic Writing'

Furthermore, the magazine does not understand that while Yasushi Akimoto's guardian spirit is giving 'spiritual messages', Atsuko Maeda's guardian spirit only handwrote through 'automatic writing', resulting in only two pages. Without even understanding the difference between 'spiritual messages' and 'automatic writing', the magazine, which completely lacks specialized knowledge, engages in slander with subtitles like 'greedy business', which is truly outrageous.

Such False Articles Themselves Are Acts of Deception Against the Public

Additionally, the article falsely suggests that our books are not selling well based on a decline in annual bestseller rankings. However, it is well known that President Okawa's books are ranked first overall in annual bestsellers at Kinokuniya Bookstore, and it is a solid fact that our believers are steadily increasing due to spiritual messages.

It is a well-known fact that annual bestsellers are manipulated, as evidenced by the fact that President Takakazu Sato of Shinchosha and others have not received fair judgment from distributors or magazine associations, and are in a position to exert pressure to arbitrarily manipulate the rankings announced by distributors. Therefore, such false articles themselves are acts of deception against the public.

Furthermore, despite being a major publisher, Shinchosha did not have a single book ranked within the top 20 of the Tohan annual bestsellers in 2012. Are they plagued by a sense of decline and anxiety due to the lack of bestsellers? We recommend that they stop the 'jealousy business' of dragging down popular items with slander and properly study marketing.

As a group, we will continue to firmly protest against such false articles and strive to establish sacred faith in the world.

Regarding Weekly Shincho, 'Research on the Demon Nesting in Weekly Shincho' open_in_new'Weekly Shincho Editor-in-Chief: Demon Radiation Contamination' open_in_new'No Longer Human: Shinchosha President Takakazu Sato's Runaway to Ruin' open_in_new'Buddhist Teachings: The Phenomenon of the Demon of Shincho' open_in_new (published by Happy Science Publishing) have been published. We hope many people will read them to expose the 'jealousy business' of malicious journalism to the world and advance the cause of justice.

Director of Public Relations Division, Happy Science Group, Rimi Tsuchiya