Benjamin Fulford is a Canadian-born journalist and author who worked in Japan for mainstream business publications before building a large independent following online.
That first part of his career is well documented. The second part is not. After leaving Forbes, Fulford began publishing weekly reports built around secret societies, hidden financial power, and coming global change.
Those later claims are his claims. They are not established facts, and readers should treat them that way.
At a glance
- Born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1961, the son of a Canadian diplomat.
- Studied at Sophia University in Tokyo and earned a degree in Asian Studies, with a China-area specialty, from the University of British Columbia.
- Was Forbes magazine’s Asia-Pacific bureau chief from 1998 to 2005.
- Now publishes weekly world-affairs reports through benjaminfulford.net.
- Describes himself as a spokesperson for a group he calls the White Dragon Society.
- His later claims about secret societies, hidden gold, and planned global events have no independent verification.
Early life and education
Fulford was born in Ottawa in 1961. His father was a Canadian diplomat, and his childhood included time outside Canada, including Cuba and Mexico, before the family returned to Canada.
He first came to Japan in 1980 to study. He attended Sophia University in Tokyo for three and a half years, and he later earned a degree from the University of British Columbia in Asian Studies, with a China-area specialty.
He is fluent in Japanese, and he has lived and worked in Japan for decades.
Journalism career: Forbes and other outlets
Fulford worked as a journalist in Japan for years before his online following grew.
His best-known mainstream role was at Forbes magazine, where he served as Asia-Pacific bureau chief from 1998 to 2005. In interviews, he has said he held the role for about six years.
He also worked for other outlets in Asia, including the South China Morning Post as a Tokyo correspondent, and the Nikkei Weekly and Nihon Keizai Shimbun as a staff writer, according to profiles of his career.
He has written more than a dozen books in Japanese, mainly on Japanese society, politics, and finance.
Leaving Forbes
Fulford left Forbes in the mid-2000s. Accounts of why he left differ, and no single official explanation is available in the public record that settles the question.
What is clear is the timing. His Forbes bureau-chief role ended around 2005, not in 2006, and he was not appointed to that role in 2006. Earlier versions of this article that gave those dates were wrong, and they have been corrected here.
After leaving Forbes, he moved into independent publishing. That shift is the dividing line in his career: mainstream business journalism on one side, and self-published weekly reports on the other.
The weekly reports
Fulford now publishes weekly reports through his own site, benjaminfulford.net. Reposted reports show that he was still publishing in this format in 2026, including weekly updates in August 2026.
The reports mix real news topics — wars, finance, central banks, and geopolitics — with claims about secret groups shaping events behind the scenes.
Typical themes include:
- A struggle between a group he calls the “Khazarian mafia” and its opponents
- Asian royal families and a group he calls the “Dragon family,” said to hold large claims to the world’s gold
- A network he calls the White Dragon Society, said to oppose that hidden power
- Predictions about financial collapse, war, pandemics, and political change
None of these central claims has been verified by independent reporting, documents, or official sources. They rest on Fulford’s own account and on unnamed sources he cites in his reports.
Readers should also note a pattern. Many of his reports present dramatic events as imminent, then move on to a new set of predictions when those events do not happen. That pattern is one reason mainstream outlets do not treat his reports as news reporting.
What is the White Dragon Society?
According to Fulford, the White Dragon Society is an informal network of financiers, military officers, intelligence officials, members of secret societies, and ordinary citizens.
He says the group opposes endless war and the concentration of financial power, and that it wants to use hidden wealth to end poverty and rebuild economies.
That description comes from Fulford himself. No independent organisation, membership list, or official record confirms the White Dragon Society as he describes it. Other writers who cover Fulford repeat his description; they do not verify it.
The same applies to his claim to be its spokesperson. It is accurate to say he describes himself that way. It is not accurate to present the group, or his role in it, as an established fact.
Conspiracy theories and disputed claims
Fulford is widely described, including in profiles sympathetic to him, as a conspiracy theorist. That label reflects the content of his work, not just a difference of opinion.
Among the claims he has made or repeated are:
- That AIDS and SARS were engineered as weapons aimed at reducing the Asian population
- That the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan were caused by a secret weapon programme
- That hidden groups plan mass depopulation and global enslavement
- That he was offered the job of Finance Minister of Japan, and threatened with death if he refused
These claims have no support in peer-reviewed science, official investigations, or mainstream reporting. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami, for example, are explained by seismology as a natural subduction-zone earthquake off Japan’s coast.
This article does not repeat his claims as fact, and it does not list every prediction he has made. Readers who want to check a specific claim should look for primary documents, named sources, and independent coverage — the standard tests his weekly reports usually do not meet.
Why do people follow him?
Fulford’s following is real, even if his central claims are not verified.
Several factors help explain it:
- A real mainstream past. His Forbes role gives him credibility with readers who do not check where that career ended.
- A weekly format. Regular reports create a habit, and a sense of ongoing insider access.
- A simple story. A hidden battle between good and evil is easier to follow than the slow, complex reality of finance and geopolitics.
- Real anxieties. Wars, debt, inflation, and pandemics are real problems. Fulford offers a single explanation for all of them.
Understanding that appeal does not require accepting his claims. It helps explain why a former business journalist can keep an audience for years after leaving mainstream media.
What about his net worth?
Earlier versions of this article gave a net worth figure for Fulford. That figure has been removed.
No reliable source — no financial filing, reputable business profile, or audited estimate — supports a specific net worth total for him. His income from subscriptions, books, and speaking is not publicly disclosed in a verifiable form.
Any site that gives an exact net worth for Fulford without a source is guessing. Readers should treat such figures as unverified.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Benjamin Fulford?
A Canadian-born journalist and author based in Japan. He was Forbes’ Asia-Pacific bureau chief from 1998 to 2005, and he now publishes independent weekly reports through benjaminfulford.net.
Is Benjamin Fulford still writing?
Yes. Reposted versions of his weekly reports show he was still publishing in August 2026, in the same format he has used for years.
Is Benjamin Fulford a reliable source?
For his own biography and his Forbes career, the record is reasonably clear. For his later claims about secret societies, hidden gold, and planned global events, he is not a reliable source on his own. Those claims lack independent verification.
What does Benjamin Fulford claim about the White Dragon Society?
He claims it is a network opposing hidden financial and political power, and he describes himself as its spokesperson. No independent evidence confirms the group as he describes it.
Did Benjamin Fulford work for Forbes?
Yes. He was Asia-Pacific bureau chief for Forbes magazine from 1998 to 2005, a role he has described in interviews as lasting about six years.
Bottom line
Benjamin Fulford’s story has two halves, and they should not be blended.
The first half is a documented journalism career in Japan, capped by his Forbes bureau-chief role. The second half is a long-running series of self-published weekly reports built around secret societies and hidden power.
The first half explains why people first paid attention to him. The second half is why mainstream outlets do not treat his reports as verified news. Readers can follow his work and still apply that distinction.
