His older brother is named Tsutomu Nakagawa (中川 力) (born 1952) (later known as Makoto Tomiyama (富山 誠)).
Okawa said his family was religious; both of his parents believed in God and the Buddha, and Okawa believed in the existence of spirits and souls, and a world after death in childhood.
Despite his beliefs, Okawa was not active in religious practice.
Okawa and Tomiyama were raised in a strict home environment that was ordinary and not particularly rich nor poor.
Yoshikawa is said to be one of the most important influences on Okawa's life.
Okawa said, despite not having a spiritual or religious master, Yoshikawa had an important influence.
Yoshikawa edited journals for the Japanese Communist Party and later worked as an agricultural advisor in local government.
He was deeply interested in spirituality and religion.
He studied in the Christian Church as a teenager, as well as in a new religion called Seicho-no-Ie after World War II.
He later became a follower of Shinji Takahashi, leader of the religious organization God Light Association (GLA).
He would also later serve as Happy Science's official adviser in its first few years.
Yoshikawa was demanding on Okawa's success.
Yoshikawa gave him and Tomiyama hour-long lectures after dinner at home.
The lectures included religious topics like the Bible and The Gateless Barrier, as well as secular topics like Kantian philosophy and Marxism during elementary school, although Okawa was not successful in school.
Okawa wanted to be a scholar or a diplomat.
He wanted to spread his ideas in academia, or broaden his view on life by experiencing different cultures as a diplomat.
Because of this prospect, he started studying until late at night and became amongst the top of his class.
He became particularly good at English.
He was obese, weighing 60 kg when he was 143 cm tall.
During secondary school, Okawa was an active student.
He fished, played tennis, and practiced kendo.
He was involved in school activities; he was president of the student union and editor of the school newspaper.
1956
Ryuho Okawa (大川 隆法; Ōkawa Ryūhō; born Takashi Nakagawa (中川 隆; Nakagawa Takashi), 7 July 1956 – 2 March 2023) was a Japanese religious and political leader who was the CEO and founder of the Happy Science and the Happiness Realization Party.
He was also chairman of two companies affiliated with the organization, New Star Production and ARI Production.
His organization has been widely criticised as a cult.
Adherents of the religion worship Okawa, who claimed to be the current incarnation of a god called “El Cantare” and a number of other beings, including Hermes and Gautama Buddha.
Ryuho Okawa was born Takashi Nakagawa on 7 July 1956 in Kawashima (now Yoshinogawa), Tokushima Prefecture as the second son of Tadayoshi Nakagawa (中川 忠義) (1921 – 2003) (later known by his pen name Saburō Yoshikawa (善川 三朗)) and Kimiko Nakagawa (中川 君子).
1975
In 1975, Okawa failed the entrance exam for Tokyo University.
After studying for a year, he was accepted into the university's Liberal Arts Division.
During his first year, he was not socially adjusted.
He said he once wrote love letters to a girl, but was rejected.
He felt uncomfortable amongst the students who were uninterested in spirituality.
During his second year, a time he calls "the first stage in the 'awakening of wisdom'", he modeled his daily schedule after that of Immanuel Kant, whom he respected deeply.
At 3 pm, he would take a walk while writing poetry.
At 5 pm, he would go to the local bathhouse and stay there for an hour thinking about his day.
Going home, he would have a cheap meal, and buy two books at a local bookstore.
From 8:30 to 9 pm, he would read, then drink tea, and then read philosophy.
The philosophy he read included those of Plato and Kitaro Nishida.
1978
In April 1978, after his second year at university, he majored in politics and studied at the Faculty of Law.
After his third year, he paused his studies for a year.
