The Happiness Realization Party (幸福実現党, Kōfuku Jitsugen-tō), abbreviated as Kōfuku (幸福),[4] is a Japanese political party founded by Ryuho Okawa on 23 May 2009. The HRP is the political wing of the conservativeHappy Science religious movement.
Okawa was the president of the party until his death on 2 March 2023.[5]
Electoral history
In 2009, the party had 345 candidates, placing it on the ballots of 99% of Japan's 300 constituencies.[4] Many perennial candidates such as Yoshiro Nakamatsu joined the HRP.[6] Despite fielding a total of more than 1 million votes,[7] the party did not win any seats in the election.[8][9][better source needed]
In 2012, the party again failed to gain any seats.[why?][10]
According to its manifesto, the group's goal is to more than double Japan's population to 300 million through making child-rearing easier for mothers and accepting foreigners as workforce. It also aims to change the pacifist Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution in order to increase Japan's economic and military power.[1]
Happiness Realization Party car sticker. Kyoto. 2010
Jay Aeba, also known as Jikido Aeba (饗庭直道, あえば直道, Aeba Jikido), was, of May 2012, advisor of the Republican National Committee of the United States in charge of Asia, with Yuki Oikawa as one of the officials of HRP.[7]
According to The Japan Times, "for many, the Happies smell suspiciously like a cult".[1] The party has released promotional videos that claim North Korea and China are plotting to invade and colonize Japan after first subduing it through nuclear warfare.
Those Koreans who presented sob stories decades later were plucked from weepy funerals and "bribed" to blacken Japan’s name, such lies now being firmly "embedded in Korean culture".
.jpg)
