The founder of the Honohana Sanpogyo religious group met with the governor of Nagasaki Prefecture in the spring of 1992 and maintained that a "voice from heaven" said the eruption of Mount Unzen would stop by the year's end if prefectural residents "awaken to the real way of life," it was learned Saturday.
Police said they found evidence that Honohana was trying to set up a branch in Nagasaki at the time.
Investigators are currently looking into allegations that the cult -- which makes diagnoses of the health and other conditions of its followers by reading the soles of their feet -- had defrauded followers of billions of yen.