Kiminobu Kimura (木村公宣) was the New York chapter director of Happy Science. As a representative of the non-existant front group “Society to Promote Correct Historical Views,” Kimura was one of the main speakers in Texas Night in NYC (2015), a comfort women denier event.

Texas Night in NYC (2015) is a series of two Japanese-language panels held on March 9 and 12, 2015 in New York City. It was officially sponsored by New York Seiron-no Kai, Japan Mahoroba Support Agency, Society to Promote Correct Historical Views (Happy Science), and Rompa Project, but in New York the event was billed as a Happy Science event.

Speakers for March 9th:

• Tony Marano (a.k.a. Texas Daddy)
• Shiro Takahashi, eduction scholar
• Yumiko Yamamoto, Nadeshiko Action
• Norimasa Suzuki (鈴木規正), New York Seiron-no Kai
• Mitsuhiko Fujii, Rompa Project
• Fujiki Shunichi, Texas Daddy Japan Secretariat
• Kiminobu Kimura (moderator), Happy Science, Society to Promote Correct Historical Views

Speakers for March 12th:

• Mitsuhiko Fujii
• Kiminobu Kimura
• Kaoli Koyasu, Japan Mahoroba Support Agency
• Norimasa Suzuki

The first panel was cancelled by the original venue, Japanese American Association of New York, after the association found out Yamamoto’s history in violent racist group Zaitokukai. The event was moved to an Italian restaurant nearby, where protesters gathered outside.

Happy Science (acting as “True Japan”) hosted two Japanese-language panels in California in December 2014 featuring notorious comfort women deniers Yumiko Yamamoto, Mitsuhiko Fujii, and others.

The San Francisco event took place on December 13, 2014 in Redwood City, California (where Happy Science’s San Francisco temple is located). The event was protested by a coalition of Asian, labor, and peace activists from the Bay Area. Speakers included:

• Yumiko Yamamoto, Nadeshiko Action
• Mitsuhiko Fujii, Rompa Project
• Motofumi Aramaki (荒巻基文), human resources consultant and visiting professor at UCSF

The Los Angeles event held on December 14, 2014 in Torrance, California included the following speakers:

• Koichi Mera, Global Alliance for Historical Truth
• Yumiko Yamamoto, Nadeshiko Action
• Mitsuhiko Fujii, Rompa Project

Mitsuhiko Fujii (藤井実彦) is the founder and director of Rompa Project, a historical revisionist group supported by Happy Science. He is a regular member of overseas delegations of the Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women.

In September 2018 Fujii made international news when he was caught kicking a statue dedicated to victims of Japanese military “comfort women” system in Tainan, Taiwan. The surveillance camera footage shows Fujii raising his foot several times to kick the bronze statue while an accomplice with snaps shots of his feat.

Rompa Project (論破プロジェクト) is a historical revisionist group supported by Happy Science and led by Mitsuhiko Fujii, who is himself a follower of Happy Science. The group uses manga (comics) as well as panels to spread its messages, and often works closely with Tony Marano and Shunichi Fujiki.

Rompa Project boasted endorsements from the following individuals and groups (among others), which has since been deleted from its website:

• Hideaki Kase
• Koichi Sugiyama
• Shiro Takahashi
• Kohyu Nishimura
• Kazuyoshi Hanada
• Nobukatsu Fujioka
• Hiromichi Moteki
• Alliance For Truth About Comfort Women
• Happiness Realization Party

Website: http://rom-pa.com/

Above: A cut from Rompa Project’s comic, “The J Facts.” The bear character depicted fantasizing about demolishing a memorial for victims of Japanese military comfort women system is Tokkuma, a mascot for the Happiness Realization Party in 2012 and 2013 named after its candidate Tokuma.

Happy Science (幸福の科学) is a new Japanese religious organization founded in the 1980s by Ryuho Okawa, who claims to be the incarnation of the supreme being. Along with the Happiness Realization Party, the group’s attempt to enter electoral politics, Happy Science promotes far-right nationalist political views, including military expansion and historical revisionism.

With chapters in several cities in the U.S., Happy Science is said to coordinate and bankroll some of the Japanese nationalist activities in the U.S. For example, the organization’s former San Francisco director and current New York director Yoshi Taguchi spoke at the City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors against the proposed comfort women memorial in the city in summer 2015. Happy Science also supports Rompa Project, a historical revisionist group using manga (comics) and other means to spread its message.

In April 2016, members of Happy Science led by James Iwase, a minister of Happy Science, showed up at the board meeting of the San Francisco Unified School District to oppose statewide curriculum revision that includes teaching about comfort women.

Members of Happy Science actively promoting comfort women denial in the U.S. include Yoshi Taguchi, Mitsuhiko Fujii, and Kiminobu Kimura. In addition, several core members of the revisionist group Himawari Japan are known to be members of Happy Science.

During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Happy Science openly supported the candidacy of Republican Donald Trump (whom it claims is the reincarnation of George Washington), with Taguchi and members of Himawari Japan volunteering at the campaign headquarters at Trump Tower. Jikido “Jay” Aeba, the founding president of Happiness Realization Party, went on to found Japanese Conservative Union, which is spending over $400,000 to lobby the U.S. government and has sponsored events supporting Trump.

Website: https://happy-science.jp/ (Japanese)
website: http://happy-science.org/ (English)

Zaitokukai (在特会) or Zainichi Tokken o Yurusanai Shimin no Kai (在日特権を許さない市民の会) is a far-right extremist group known for violent rhetorics and actions against ethnic Korean communities and other minorities in Japan. Ever since its founding in 2006, Zaitokukai is also known for racist and misogynist attacks on former comfort women. The most notorious incident occurred in 2010 in which members of Zaitokukai and allied groups showed up in front of a Korean elementary school in Kyoto, banging on its gate and screaming racist epithets.

The group was founded by Makoto Sakurai, the president of the organization until 2015, who later ran for the governor of Tokyo in 2016. Another prominent leader of Zaitokukai was Yumiko Yamamoto, who served as the vice president and the secretary general until 2011 when she decided to focus her energy on Nadeshiko Action, a “women’s” organization focusing on comfort women denial.

After Sakurai founded Japan First Party in late 2016, some chapters of Zaitokukai transformed themselves into chapters of the party.

See Shunichi Fujiki.

Shunichi Fujiki (藤木俊一), who also calls himself “Shun Ferguson,” is a comfort women denier and a business owner in Japan. Fujiki runs the “Texas Daddy Japan Secretariat,” which represents and promotes retired American youtuber Tony Marano as the Texas Daddy in publications and appearances in Japan.

See Tony Marano.