Earlier this week, Toru Saito, the leader of a yugen-gaisha (limited company) called Shinsekai (World of Gods), was arrested by the Kanagawa Prefectural Police for swindling five customers out of more than ¥13 million. Shinsekai is a so-called spirituality business (reikan shoho) that runs a chain of "salons" where people who are suffering physically or mentally can be "healed," mainly through prayer fees or the purchase of spiritually charged objects like "power stones." A group of lawyers representing former patrons of Shinsekai have likened the company's business model to that of a pyramid scheme. People who come in for a consultation are charged huge sums in an ongoing manner to be cured, and when they can't pay they are then compelled to bring in friends and acquaintances, thus creating a cycle. The salons themselves grow from this cycle and, according to the lawyers group, have to fulfill quotas assigned by Shinsekai executives. A local newspaper reports that the company, which some media are calling a "cult," collected ¥17.5 billion from 2001 to 2007. Between 30 and 50 percent of the money went to the leadership group, with Saito, the founder, receiving a cool ¥1.5 billion.
Nice work if you can get it, and a lot of people obviously are trying. Since the Aum Shinrikyo scandal in the mid-90s, the idea of religion has been tainted in Japan, and a lot of money-making spiritual concerns that once would use the word religion if for no other reason than to qualify for tax-exampt status now shun it, prefering the term "healing" to describe the benefits of what they have to offer. Superstar fortune tellers and "aura readers" like Hiroyuki Ehara and Kazuko Hosoki epitomize this post-Aum spirituality trend, which focuses on the subject's relationship with his or her ancestors, thus tapping into cultural beliefs associated with tenets of Buddhism and Shintoism. These two faith systems, especially Shintoism, have a close relationship with money, which represents the spiritual investment in whatever sort of outcome the subject wants to bring about. If you want a prayer to bless your house or make sure your son passes a university test, the more you pay the stronger the entreaty, though in the Western sense of "faith" it sounds more like superstition.