Yoshikazu Okada, the founder of the Mahikari religion, was originally a follower of Sekai Kyūsei Kyō (Church of World Messianity).

There are three pillars of the religion, of which the key concept is Johrei, claimed to be a method of channeling divine light into the body of another for the purposes of healing.

[1] According to anthropologist of religion Winston Davis, Mahikari groups are comparable to The Church of World Messianity and follow basically the same healing ritual.

According to Hideaki Matsuoka of the University of California, Berkeley, in a presentation at the Summer 2000 Asian Studies Conference Japan entitled "Messianity Makes the Person Useful: Describing Differences in a Japanese Religion in Brazil," Japanese new religions have propagated in Brazil since the 1930s and now have at least a million non-Japanese Brazilian followers.

[1] Shinji Shumeikai (also known simply as Shumei), a splinter organization of the Church of World Messianity, operates the Miho Museum in Kōka, Shiga.