Pana Wave Laboratory

Pana Wave Laboratory (PWL) was the former research branch of a Japanese new religious movement known as Chino Shoho, or True Law. Chino Shoho was an eclectic form of spiritualism that adopted doctrines from the Abrahamic religions, self-medicating traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, New Age concepts, theosophy, and parapsychology as well as a host of pseudoscientific conjectures about physics, environmental warfare, and space exploration. Chino Shoho's mystic leader Yuko Chino was said to possess supernatural powers of clairvoyance, frequently communicating with the deceased, extraterrestrial beings and a number of heavenly figures and gods.

In a peculiar twist, Chino began making claims of being the target of a communist guerilla conspiracy to have her assassinated through the use of electromagnetic wave weaponry. Chino then commissioned an intellectual vanguard from her spiritual following to research the harmful effects of these electromagnetic waves. This group would come to be known as the Pana Wave Laboratory, and its objective would be to prolong Chino's life through the scientific analysis of electromagnetic wave warfare.

In their research, the PWL members concluded that the color white was the most effective defense against the communists’ attacks, and thus, as a safety precaution, PWL members began clothing themselves from head to toe in all-white material. In addition to their appearance, members also erected a physical compound that they referred to as their research laboratory, where they would act out a popular version of scientific research.

Chino Shoho and the PWL were adamant about the dangers of globalization. In their view, Japan's history and autonomy had been compromised by the influx of liberal ideologies from the West. Their imperial heritage was waning in the face of this cultural, economic, and political encroachment. This position, however, was largely selective, as Chino Shoho and the PWL managed to adopt a variety of religious traditions that originated from beyond Japan's borders.

Engaged in this struggle to combat the communist assassination conspiracy and the threat of globalization, Chino Shoho and the PWL may be best known for their tendency to make extraordinary claims and activities, including two failed prophecies about the end of the world, an unsuccessful attempt to build a spacecraft, and, most recently, the anticipated arrival of a flying saucer that would rescue them from the ills of this planet. However, much of their activity ended when Yuko Chino died on October 25, 2006. At this point, it is unclear how the group as a whole has operated since Chino's death.