Godaishi, Japan
A Japanese doomsday cult pushed its end-of-the-world date back one week after the earth’s magnetic poles failed to reverse last Thursday, as it had predicted. The 1,200-member group, Pana Wave Laboratory, does not believe in bathing, dresses all in white, and eats only instant noodles. It says an apocalypse triggered by the pole shift and cataclysmic earthquakes can be prevented only if a seal named Tama-chan is “rescued.” Tama-chan, a Japanese media phenomenon in his own right, has been drawing crowds since August, when he appeared in a Tokyo river, 600 miles from his arctic habitat. Pana Wave is being eyed warily by the Japanese, who recall that Aum Shinrikyo also began as an odd but seemingly harmless sect.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The Olympic timekeepers keeping the Games on trackUnder the Radar Swiss watchmaking giant Omega has been at the finish line of every Olympic Games for nearly 100 years
-
Will increasing tensions with Iran boil over into war?Today’s Big Question President Donald Trump has recently been threatening the country
-
Corruption: The spy sheikh and the presidentFeature Trump is at the center of another scandal
