





All this keeps Chino’s followers preoccupied and attentive.


Pana Wave seems to be a never-ending story.






Hopefully it will stay that way.





Nothing happened.











Many cult leaders do seem to crave attention.





Police continue to watch Pana Wave closely.




A team of 100 Japanese riot police is presently tracking the “cult” Pana Wave, reports The Guardian.

Village after village has protested the group and made it clear they are unwelcome.

But Pana Wave has not been connected to any crime.

However, the ominous predictions of coming doom made by its leader Yuko Chino, deeply disturb many Japanese who remember the cult Aum.

An editorial in Asahi News noted, “In hindsight…Aum became increasingly bloody-minded, the police were late in taking appropriate action” and warned they should now “be prepared to move swift and sure if [Pana Wave] breaks any laws.”

However, that same editorial said, “Police need to keep in mind the possibility that groups of this sort, when pressed too hard, can sometimes lash out dangerously.”

So Japanese authorities are engaged in a precarious balancing act, between protecting the public from a potentially unsafe group, while being sensitive to the group itself.

Even the Prime Minister of Japan weighed in and said, “I would like groups, whatever kind, not to cause inconvenience to local areas and other people,” reported Japan Today.

Of course the crucial ingredient in all this remains Yuko Chino.

Much like Aum leader Shoko Asahara, Chino is the impetus behind her group and she largely defines it. The 69-year-old woman has the power to keep Pana Wave peaceful, or act as its ignition point.

Asahi lamented the intense nonstop TV coverage of the “cult” citing this as “One of the main reasons so much attention is being drawn to this group.”

However, Chino seems to be directing her followers in a series of sensational stunts that have garnered the group increasing attention.

Maybe with so many news cameras now focused on her group, 100 police engaged in ongoing surveillance and the Japanese Prime Minister commenting about Pana Wave, Chino is satisfied and has finally received all the attention she wants.








Maybe she is both rolled up into one odd combination?








It should come as no surprise that Yuko Chino has almost as strange a history as the cult she created.

The leader of Pana Wave, was known as a “kook” and “weirdo” growing up, reports Mainichi Daily News.

Chino alternated between isolating herself and dressing or undressing to gain attention. This included everything from “hot pants” to “streaking” naked through her neighborhood.

A love affair gone sour led the young Chino to attempt suicide once.

Later there was an arranged marriage with a Pana Wave follower, apparently linked to an immigration plan to enter the United States.

The reclusive “cult leader” now migrates around Japan within a white van, supposedly the repeated target of death rays transmitted by enemies intent upon killing her.

Repeated claims that Chino is dying from cancer remain essentially unproven.

She has predicted that the world will end next week on May 15th.

But when this prophecy fails don’t expect the group to end.

Historically, cult leaders can usually find some excuse to explain away a failed prediction. And cult followers, deeply invested and dependent upon the leader, typically accept what they are told.



Pana Wave’s leader Yuko Chino makes increasingly strange pronouncements and proclamations.















Let’s hope so.


A strange cult called Pana Wave ceased blocking a road in Japan and moved on, but only after Japanese police searched the group’s vans and insisted they leave, reports the Herald Sun.

An apparently terminally ill woman named Yuko Chino 69 leads the group. The self-proclaimed “prophet” is reportedly dying from cancer.

Literature produced by the cult focuses on disturbing doomsday scenarios, with Chino as the exclusive savior of humanity, reports Associated Press.

Many Pana Wave members now live nomadically in tents and wander about Japan in a van caravan, most likely this has been directed by their “prophet” and motivated by her delusions.

One Japanese cult watcher said, “This is a cult in its terminal phase.”

Cults can be extremely volatile under such circumstances.

After the horrific attack of Tokyo’s subway system by another doomsday cult Aum in 1995, the Japanese are not taking any chances with another potentially dangerous group.

Authorities in Japan seem to be closely monitoring Pana Wave.
















