Speaker 1: Q and On is now the most prolific online conspiracy
Speaker 1: theory of the twenty one century. None of their predictions
Speaker 1: came true. Q has vanished and the storm never came,
Speaker 1: but Q and on is still alive. I'm Jake Hanrahan,
Speaker 1: and this is series two of Q Clearance Podcast, shedding
Speaker 1: light on the ongoing Q and on conspiracy theory. This
Speaker 1: is a production of Kudatar Media and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to be speaking about the confusing world
Speaker 1: of Q and on Japan. That's right, the trump centric
Speaker 1: US online conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories has
Speaker 1: managed to take roots seven thousand miles away in Japan. Now,
Speaker 1: you might have seen Japan in the news recently due
Speaker 1: to the Olympics being hosted there and the protests that
Speaker 1: that has caused. Many people in Japan feel that the
Speaker 1: Olympics will essentially act as a super spreader event for COVID.
Speaker 1: Japan has had over fifteen thousand deaths from the virus,
Speaker 1: with almost one million cases in total. Hundreds of Japanese
Speaker 1: citizens have taken to the streets to air their concerns
Speaker 1: about the further spread that the Olympics could cause. However,
Speaker 1: a group of people in Japan, of course, not concerned
Speaker 1: about covid ah. The Japanese Q and Ons, like their
Speaker 1: American counterparts, they believe it's all a hoax and a
Speaker 1: quote scam. DEMI to get an idea of how the
Speaker 1: hell Q and On gained a solid following in Japan,
Speaker 1: We're going to be speaking to Sarah Hightower. You've probably
Speaker 1: heard of her. She's been on the podcast a few
Speaker 1: times and she helps with the research. Sarah is a
Speaker 1: researcher specializing in cults with an incredibly in depth knowledge
Speaker 1: of Japanese cults. She's also one of the very best
Speaker 1: Q and On researchers out there, so as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: she is very well versed in Q and on Japan.
Speaker 1: She's going to explain how this all happened. So Sarah
Speaker 1: maybe just explained to us how did Q and on
Speaker 1: managed to kind of make it infest its way into Japan.
Speaker 1: Obviously it's a very America centric thing, so it's kind
Speaker 1: of unusual. Um, maybe give us an idea, give us
Speaker 1: some kind of timeline of how this happened. Yeah, people
Speaker 1: are still shocked when they hear the Japanese Q and
Speaker 1: On it's just like a thing. But around the Japanese
Speaker 1: internet over on that side of things, there's varying degrees
Speaker 1: of interest in Q and on since the earliest days
Speaker 1: of Q and on. Now is Q non America centric? Yeah? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: it's the gult of personality centator around this image of
Speaker 1: Donald Trump as an infallible god game. Yeah, so it's
Speaker 1: it's it's really stupid and it is really American. But
Speaker 1: that's not all you and on is. Yeah, pull back
Speaker 1: and look at the bigger picture. What else is Q
Speaker 1: and I? Q and On is an anti Semitic conspiracy
Speaker 1: theories plucked straight out of the Protocols of the Learned
Speaker 1: Elders of Zion. If you don't know what Sarah is
Speaker 1: talking about, their the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Speaker 1: It is a hoaxed anti Semitic text from the early
Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds. It originated in Russia and was eventually taught
Speaker 1: by the Nazi regime in schools as if it were real,
Speaker 1: of course, to demonize the Jewish people. Many parts of
Speaker 1: the Q and On conspiracy theory are very similar to
Speaker 1: the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. They don't always
Speaker 1: name Jews directly. However, the ideas are often the same,
Speaker 1: and the protocols and these anti Semitic conspiracy theories, they've
Speaker 1: also taken hard at various points throughout Japanese history. But
Speaker 1: I think you wanted the timeline, so let's do that. Forest.
Speaker 1: By the time team rolls around over here, four Chuan
Speaker 1: has already chased given On off the site in Q
Speaker 1: and on made their home over on h Chan, now
Speaker 1: the Japanese counterpart to four Chan. At this time, it's
Speaker 1: not to channel anymore, it's five channel now. You remember
Speaker 1: from series one that Q and on first gained prominence
Speaker 1: on the Chan boards to channel five channel. These are
Speaker 1: very similar things, although most of them are just text
Speaker 1: and they exist mostly for the Japanese audience. Whilst all
Speaker 1: of this Q and on stuff was happening on four
Speaker 1: Chan and h Chan and then a con a lot
Speaker 1: of it actually started appearing on the two channel and
Speaker 1: five channel boards in Japan as well. I know it's complicated,
Speaker 1: but there's a big mess where all of this started,
Speaker 1: and it all points to the channel boards both in
Speaker 1: America and apparently in Japan outside of the channisphere or
Speaker 1: in Happenese Internet. You have the blogger sphere, because blogs
Speaker 1: are still a really huge still in Japan. You have
Speaker 1: these blogs are more in touch with like conspiracy theories, subculture,
Speaker 1: with the people who are just really really way to
Speaker 1: go into it, honestly, so, Sarah said, blogging is still
Speaker 1: a very big thing in Japan. As Q and On
Speaker 1: began to gain traction on the Chan boards, Japanese conspiracy
Speaker 1: theory bloggers transferred that information onto their blogs. The blogs
Speaker 1: spread like wildfire. They've got a lot of things, and
Speaker 1: eventually some of Japan's many so called new religious movements
Speaker 1: began to take notice. In short, some cults in Japan
Speaker 1: began posting about Q and On. Quite early on. There
Speaker 1: were blogs that were owned and operated by people who are,
Speaker 1: you know, either running cults, are or affiliated the culting movements.
Speaker 1: There's one in particular as a new age a wellness cult.
Speaker 1: It's run out of Hiurussima, and they have three blog
Speaker 1: lugs and one in Japanese like two in English, and
Speaker 1: they're already selling you privacy ship. They also have Haywald
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory newsletters with prophecies and times bullshit. They're just
Speaker 1: throwing it all together. These are like some of the
Speaker 1: original pioneers like spreading Q and on, but also showing
Speaker 1: how cu not could be adapted over here on the
Speaker 1: Japanese Internet for their domestic audience. So basically, when Q
Speaker 1: and On came out, it was very similar to what
Speaker 1: some of these cults in Japan believe in already doomsday prophecies,
Speaker 1: all different ideas and conspiracy theories fling together to project
Speaker 1: one kind of idea that this specific cult adheers to.
Speaker 1: Sounds a lot like Q and on, right, So instead
Speaker 1: of going against Q and on some of these cults,
Speaker 1: is Sarah mentioned just picked up and ran with it
Speaker 1: and said, yeah, this is something we believe in as well.
Speaker 1: It took a while, but over the years Q and
Speaker 1: on conspiracy theories started to gain traction in Japan because
Speaker 1: of these people that were translating them and putting them
Speaker 1: out on their blogs. So let's go to now people
Speaker 1: who are translating Q and on stuff into Japanese. They're
Speaker 1: starting to give some actual traction. And the biggest one
Speaker 1: is ari Ari's translating all of the Q drops. She's
Speaker 1: translating q map dot pub and she's doing is professional quality.
Speaker 1: So this person Ariy that Sarah is talking about. She
Speaker 1: starts translating Q and On texts into Japanese very professionally.
Speaker 1: They're well done. Everybody can understand them. This gives Air
Speaker 1: some credibility within the global Q and On movement, and
Speaker 1: before you know it, she is then promoted by the
Speaker 1: regular US Q and ON crowd Q and on h
Speaker 1: Q Q and on General Command whatever, the main group
Speaker 1: of people that have helped spread this all over the world.
Speaker 1: So then Area is getting promoted by them. The circle
Speaker 1: is complete, the networks are made, and Q and On
Speaker 1: starts to grow larger in Japan. So this little movement
Speaker 1: starts to can't call less around Area's propaganda output. Aria's
Speaker 1: little movement would become Q Army Japan Flin. That's right,
Speaker 1: she said, Q Army Japan Flynn. This is in regards
Speaker 1: to Mike Flynn, Mike Flynn being one of the biggest
Speaker 1: Q and On proponents in the US, probably in the
Speaker 1: whole world. If you remember. Mike Flynn is a retired U.
Speaker 1: S Army lieutenant general who became the twenty five U
Speaker 1: S National Security Advisor for Trump before he was sacked
Speaker 1: after twenty two days for lying about his connections to
Speaker 1: Russia Q Army Japan. Flynn was one of the first
Speaker 1: properly organized Q and On groups two for men a
Speaker 1: following in Japan. Obviously, they have this big allegiance to
Speaker 1: Mike Flynn, who many in the U s q and
Speaker 1: On scene also have an allegiance to. They call him
Speaker 1: the General. You know how it goes coincidentally or maybe not,
Speaker 1: Mike Flynn was following several Q and on Japan accounts
Speaker 1: on Twitter before he was banned from the platform. One
Speaker 1: of the other Q and on groups in Japan, as
Speaker 1: if this wasn't complicated enough, became known as j NN.
Speaker 1: J Anon is a more mainstream friendly, looser collective of
Speaker 1: standard nationalists who buy into a lot of stupid conspiracy
Speaker 1: theory stuff. But they are balls too well insane rep
Speaker 1: and Mike Flynn and saying that the emperor is like
Speaker 1: murdered and replaced the shadow clones in eighteen hundreds and
Speaker 1: there hasn't done a genuine emperor since then. So what's
Speaker 1: interesting here about what Sarah just said is that Q
Speaker 1: and On Japan at first took on the regular U
Speaker 1: s Q and On ideas and conspiracy theories but as
Speaker 1: you just heard, it later began to form in its
Speaker 1: own region specific conspiracies. Take for example, Q and On's
Speaker 1: belief that Joe Biden is a body double and that
Speaker 1: he actually died some time ago. As Sarah just said,
Speaker 1: some of the Japanese Q and Ons are incorporating a
Speaker 1: very similar conspiracy theory into their own mythos, but they're
Speaker 1: drawing it from their own culture. Essentially, Q and on
Speaker 1: is the framework, but the followers are creating their own law.
Speaker 1: It sounds to me is if Q and On Japan
Speaker 1: is a successful Q and on franchise. What's more, jn
Speaker 1: On was formed within an amalgamation of several different well
Speaker 1: organized cults in Japan. Jann is organized by offshoots of
Speaker 1: the Unification Church that carry around guns the gun needs
Speaker 1: standard Unification Church, Happy Science, Happiness Realization Party offshoots, and
Speaker 1: Yeah Fall and Gone. All of those groups mentioned, as
Speaker 1: I said, are fairly powerful cults in Japan, or New
Speaker 1: age religious movements as they like to be called. So
Speaker 1: Q and On Japan is still spreading. It's got the
Speaker 1: backing of influential cults, and it feeds off of Q
Speaker 1: and on us to then form its own theories locally.
Speaker 1: So should people in Japan be worried about Q and
Speaker 1: on Japan, Well, it depends as the number of people
Speaker 1: actually involved in it is kind of unknown. Sarah Planes,
Speaker 1: I think in a recent interview air from a you know,
Speaker 1: Q Army Japan flin and she said they had around
Speaker 1: like five hundred members, which means they have like five
Speaker 1: hundred members who have signed up to be like an
Speaker 1: actual member member, and they have been vetted and granted
Speaker 1: actual like membership status into an actual group, and they
Speaker 1: meet up at each other's houses and pastile propaganda train stations.
Speaker 1: Now you might hear that and think, Okay, well five
Speaker 1: hundred there's millions of people in Japan, that's not such
Speaker 1: a big deal. But just think about what Sarah said.
Speaker 1: That's not just five people that are vaguely interested or
Speaker 1: are reposting the stuff that Airy puts out. That is
Speaker 1: five hundred people that have signed up as start up
Speaker 1: members of Q Army Japan, Flynn. That's a very big
Speaker 1: movement that is connected, has very specific goals, and they
Speaker 1: all go out onto the street and spread the proper ganda,
Speaker 1: meet up at people's houses, talk about this stuff that
Speaker 1: isn't just an internet movement anymore. That is five people
Speaker 1: who sound highly motivated by a deeply worrying conspiracy theory
Speaker 1: that has already had dieret consequences, as we saw with
Speaker 1: the Capital Building storming in January of this year. Now,
Speaker 1: hopefully Ariy is lying and there isn't five hundred members,
Speaker 1: but either way, Q Army Japan FLYNN is actually by
Speaker 1: the sounds of it, pretty well organized. And that's just
Speaker 1: one faction and you've got you know, the j and
Speaker 1: on that we discussed, the more magat oriented. You know,
Speaker 1: it's still like really not good ship. I don't really
Speaker 1: know how many you got there, but what I do
Speaker 1: know so is that like it doesn't really matter because
Speaker 1: we know it's there and we're seeing it. We know
Speaker 1: there's a Q and UN presence here. We know that
Speaker 1: the cult is here, and it is a destructive cult.
Speaker 1: Destructive cults in Japan have a serious history. Take for example,
Speaker 1: am Shinrikyo, the doomsday cult responsible for the country's largest
Speaker 1: domestic terror attack. Members of am Shinrikyo released Sarah nerv
Speaker 1: gas onto the subways of Tokyo. They killed fourteen people
Speaker 1: in this attack and caused several thousand more serious injury.
Speaker 1: They did this as a means to bring about some
Speaker 1: kind of apocalyptic scenario in Japan, when they believed only
Speaker 1: all members would survive. What's interesting about am shin Rikyo
Speaker 1: is that they had many, many members, They had hundreds
Speaker 1: of millions in cash, and they went on to form
Speaker 1: a global movement. Their ideology, much like Q and On
Speaker 1: tour families apart and ruined relationships is a destructive cult.
Speaker 1: Innocence that it causes lasting psychological, in emotional damage to
Speaker 1: anyone who gets drawn in is a destructive cult, and
Speaker 1: sense that it's tearing families apart. And it's a destructive
Speaker 1: cult in the sense that, as we've seen demonstrated multiple occasions,
Speaker 1: there's a prevnsity for racticalization viles. How concerned should we
Speaker 1: be about Q and On Japan. I'm not gonna sit
Speaker 1: here and say I think they could be the next
Speaker 1: I can say that they are similar to them, and
Speaker 1: I can say that they're a destructive cult in all
Speaker 1: the ways that own ones. But I also don't think
Speaker 1: that you have to have, you know, multiple murders and
Speaker 1: terrorist attacks on your hand to then be taken seriously
Speaker 1: I think people should be concerned because there is a
Speaker 1: cult that's actively recruiting and hurting people. So that is
Speaker 1: q and On Japan. Born from the radical ideas of
Speaker 1: the more conventional U S q and On crowd, the
Speaker 1: q and On Japan crowd seems to have started franchising
Speaker 1: itself into more radical groups, and some are even organizing
Speaker 1: with proper membership lists and activities for the other q
Speaker 1: and Ons to do. Now, I just want to say,
Speaker 1: hopefully me and Sarah are wrong. Hopefully the comparisons to
Speaker 1: aum Shinrikyo are completely baseless. However, I think it is
Speaker 1: very much worth mentioned in such things in the context
Speaker 1: of a cult building up building steam in Japan, and
Speaker 1: one that specifically caused for violence against people that don't
Speaker 1: believe the same things that they do. Hopefully none of
Speaker 1: this ever turns violent. To get an idea of how
Speaker 1: badly q and On has begun hurting people, hurting families
Speaker 1: all over the world, next week we're going to hear
Speaker 1: firsthand from someone who helps families affected by human on.
Speaker 1: In one case, the results of the q and On
Speaker 1: ideology was potentially deadly. Q Clearance is brought to you
Speaker 1: by I Heart Radio and Coudata Media. I'm Jake Hanrahan.
Speaker 1: You can find me online at Jake Underscool Hanrahan. That's
Speaker 1: h A N A h A N. You can get
Speaker 1: Q clearance merch at dark wash dot net. This episode
Speaker 1: was produced by myself, with fact checking and additional research
Speaker 1: by Sarah Hightower. The music is by Sound Black and
Speaker 1: the sound was mixed by Thomas Griffin at Splicing Block,
Speaker 1: Unperple and Unpert Countle