From the viewpoint of religious studies, Happy Science’s doctrines will show that they are filled with the same kind of universality as the world’s major religions are. It is true that this might be hard to tell simply by examining each individual spiritual message but we can see that Happy Science’s teachings, as a whole, are filled with the same principles and universality that runs through the foundations of the world’s religions.

By “teachings with universality,” I refer to the “principle of happiness” as represented by the four-fold path of “love, knowledge, self-reflection and progress.” Such principles share universal aspects with other world religions, and in Happy Science, the pursuit of enlightenment – what we call the “exploration of the right mind” – has an eastern religious characteristic.

The idea of honest poverty tends to be a major part of religions, but we’re trying to produce people who can succeed financially or in business so as to fulfill our mission as a contemporary religion. It is actually very challenging to preach teachings which are based on economic and business principles with the idea that the “enrichment and prosperity of the adherents of this religion will, in turn, lead to the world’s salvation and help eradicate financial deficits and poverty.” […]

However, from when I first started this group as “President Okawa,” I stated that I would “preach the truth for the next half a century (“On the Inauguration of Happy Science,” November 13th, 1986), and declared that over the next fifty years I would consolidate the group’s doctrines and forms of activities and spread them throughout the word. I continue to believe this is how I should proceed. My intention is to create a religion that will last for the next three thousand years, and I firmly believe that I can create a model for development in our group that accords with this goal.

In this sense, I think an analysis of Happy Science from a religious studies perspective could look something like the following: “From teachings that contain an ever-increasing body of truths, a single wide river on course to become a world religion flows. In response to various incidents that have occurred in the course of its flow, I have sought to tread a pathway for this world religion while informing people of our opinions from the perspective of wisdom, which can change the world as it moves forward.”

(Happy Science Studies from a Religious Studies Perspective: A Beginner’s Guide)

I was the only religious leader who repeatedly criticized Aum Shinrikyo for a few years from 1991 to 1995. Nobody else did. You can search all of Japan. I was the only one who was criticizing them all the way from 1991. […] The police at the time were very indecisive about investigating Aum. Since their prior two attempts to investigate them had turned out to be vein, they were in a situation where they’d never be able to investigate the cult if they had messed up again.

For that reason, the police were quite grateful that someone from within the religious circles supported the police and criticized Aum. At that time, our organization was often in close contact with the police. […] When Aum abducted Mr. Kariya, our organization handed out about a million flyers to call for the criminal investigation of Aum Shinrikyo.

As a result of the delayed, compulsory investigation, however, Aum carried out its sarin gas terrorist attack which targeted the Sakuradamon Gate area where the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was located. A few people lost their lives and many were injured. (This was a reference to the “Metro Sarin Gas Incident,” on March 20th, 1995. Twelve people were killed, and over 5,000 passengers and station staff were injured slightly).

But what would have happened had their arrests been another month late? Aum was planning to use small remote-controlled helicopters to spray sarin gas all over Tokyo with the aim of killing some 500 thousand to a million people. It was actually a close call. They were arrested just in time.

Afraid of such tragedies taking place, I pushed the police, and asked them, “Why has the investigation proceeded so slowly?” […] I continually criticized Aum Shinrikyo for five years, and for that reason they committed several failed assassination attempts on me. I have had a pistol aimed at me, and lethal gas called VX even almost killed me in my car.
At the time, I was working at the Kioicho-building in the Chiyoda ward, and Aum members snuck into the parking lot where they put the VX gas in my car’s vents. A newspaper reported “Ryuho Okawa’s Assassination Attempt” in its evening edition. I told them though, “Please, no. This is grotesque. Please don’t report on it,” in order to prevent the article from appearing in other media.

We criticized the Aum cult at the risk of our own lives, but the results of our activities were disappointing, indeed. After the series of events in 1995, the trend in public opinion shifted to “religion is bad.” The Parliament revised the Religious Corporation Act, claiming that they had to keep a better eye on religions more. It tried to make the activities of religious groups more transparent.

I was disappointed that the Parliament revised the law without even mentioning there was a religious group that eagerly worked to solve the Aum problem. Afterwards, I went into “retreat” for a while, and I worked on consolidating the internal structure of our organization such as at the head temple. I distanced myself from politics.