World doesn&#146;t end

last updated 8 January 2015

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.