• A Tokyo court punished several members of a QAnon group in Japan.
• Members broke into immunization facilities throughout Tokyo in March and April.
• The group’s website and manifesto opposed Satanists and the Illuminati.

Tokyo court punished several members of a QAnon group in Japan on Thursday for breaking into many Covid immunization facilities.

The five defendants were associated with YamatoQ, a smaller QAnon conspiracy theory that started in the US in 2017.

Since then, a number of QAnon fringe groups have appeared in Japan, and some local influencers have amassed tens of thousands of fans.

The 44-year-old former YamatoQ leader Kuraoka Hiroyuki was found guilty of breaking into immunization facilities all throughout Tokyo in March and April of this year.

According to Media, the court decided on Thursday that his sentence of one and a half years in prison will be suspended for three years since he had demonstrated sorrow by formally leaving the group.

The sentences for the other defendants were also suspended.

The members “dared to commit the crime for the purpose of forcing their own beliefs,” said the court in its decision, according to Media.

“They may not evade severe condemnation.”

This year, the general incorporated association YamatoQ has planned monthly demonstrations against vaccinations and face masks all around Japan.

According to the group’s manifesto and website, which also claimed to support former US President Donald Trump, it sought to defend people against Satanists and the Illuminati.

When someone or someone posting under the handle “Q” (which is a level of US security clearance) started a discussion on 4chan, an anonymous American message board widely recognized as the origin of the alt-right movement, QAnon was born in the US.

The billboard promoted a number of conspiracies, including the idea that Trump was against a clandestine group of elites involved in child trafficking and the Mueller probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.

The theory soon gained popularity after emerging from the deepest recesses of the internet.

According to social network analysis research company Graphika, the Japanese network has developed into one of QAnon’s most advanced and active ones outside of the United States with its own ideology and influencers.

The number of QAnon adherents globally or in Japan is unknown, although a number of splinter organisations have emerged there, including J-Anon and QArmyJapanFlynn.

The foundation of QAnon is the widely held notion that established organizations and governments are deceiving the populace.

According to experts, QAnon members are looking for purpose in a society they perceive as broken and have been led to believe that QAnon is the solution to all of the world’s issues.

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