Shoko Asahara

Stories: 2002

by Julia Duin ("The Washington Times," December 27, 2002)     

While former nightclub musician Marre Ishii, 37, whaled away at the piano, a backup six-piece band belted out ear-splitting tunes and about 50 Japanese young people dressed in a variety of punk-style costumes lifted their hands and clapped. 
     They were at Committed Japan, a youth-oriented church that uses rock music, evangelizes through a nearby cafe and sells its conferences, CDs and books using standard marketing methods.
     Unhappy with traditional Japanese churches that average only 35 worshippers per Sunday, Mr. Ishii began his own church in September 1995 with four persons in an apartment. Now Committed Japan oversees a network of small churches and Bible-study groups numbering 170 persons.
     "Japanese people are seeking hope," said Mr. Ishii, lounging in the church-owned Kick Back Cafe in a western Tokyo suburb. Those who fail to attain it, he added, may wind up throwing themselves in the path of a commuter train.
      His church has an ingredient that is rare in Japan today: religious conviction. Although Japanese marry with native Shinto ceremonies, mourn their dead in Buddhist rites, and some worship as Christians, Muslims or other religions, public discourse is hardly influenced by theocentric concerns.
     Mark Mullins, who teaches comparative religion at Sophia University in downtown Tokyo, says most Japanese avoid religion.
     "Since the Aum incident, there's been a huge fallout," he said, referring to the March 1995 sarin-gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by adherents of Aum Shinrikyo — an apocalyptic group of Shiva worshippers founded by "Venerated Master Shoko Asahara" (born Chizuo Matsumoto in 1955) — that killed 12 persons and sickened more than 5,000.
     "Now religion is connected with violence and considered dangerous. Before the Aum incident, you'd see religious groups handing out materials at the train stations. That has disappeared. There's not a lot of interest in religion, period."
     Nobutaka Inoue, a professor of Japanese culture at Kokugakuin University in Tokyo, also faults the Aum incident for dampening interest.
     "For the younger generation, religion is a little bit dangerous," he said. "They may believe in God or spiritual beings, but belonging to an actual group is another matter. Young people see religious people as overly concerned with money or involved with scandal."
     This is not to say that the Japanese aren't spiritual: Memorials to aborted fetuses at Buddhist temples such as Hase-Kannon temple in Kamakura, dedicated to the goddess of mercy, and Zojo-ji in Tokyo testify that this is a people who believe strongly in the soul and some form of life after death.
     "People will drop by the Meiji Shrine on New Year's," said Mr. Mullins, referring to the country's best-known Shinto sanctuary, "but they don't go anywhere where people will know them. You have a growth of anonymous religious behavior in Japan. Japan has always had an eccentric religious environment."
     Shinto ("the way of the gods"), the Japan's indigenous religion, dates to prehistoric times and has no founder or scripture. It concerns harvest and fertility, emperor worship and birth ceremonies. State Shinto, a mixture of religion and patriotism, was the force that propelled many to sacrifice their lives for the emperor during World War II.
     Confucianism, the next-oldest religion, has been in Japan since 404 A.D. Most followers of this religion took up Buddhism, which came via Korea sometime around 600 A.D.
     Christianity was brought to Japan in 1549 by Francis Xavier, founder of the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Rivalry with other Catholic missionary groups, and later with Dutch Protestants, for Japanese converts and influence led to restrictions on Christianity in 1612 and a nationwide ban two years later. Japanese Christians were persecuted under the rule of the Tokugawa shoguns and went underground until 1873, when religious sanctions were withdrawn under the Meiji imperial government.
     Some 75 percent of Japanese have Buddhist or Shinto altars in their homes and almost 90 percent pay visits to ancestral graves on religious festivals. Two percent or fewer of Japan's 127 million people consider themselves to be Christians.
     However, Japanese like to sample Western Christian customs, such as church weddings and black gospel music. According to a 1999 study published by Kokugakuin University, Japanese associate Christmas with the following in descending order: Santa Claus, Christmas trees, presents, cake, parties, Jesus Christ, church ceremonies and Christmas cards.
     But Japanese Christian churches are competing head-to-head with Shinto shrines as a place for wedding ceremonies as more people select Western-style weddings.
     "This is a big debate in the Christian community," said Mr. Mullins. "Some say the bride and groom should be Christian. Others say this is the first time the Japanese have asked [Christians] for anything. Usually, we have to go out to them."
     So do some of the Buddhist variants, such as Soka Gokkai, Mr. Inoue said. "They preach aggressively to strangers," he said. "The proselytizing attitude is quite problematic to the Japanese. They're even more aggressive than the Mormons."
     Islam, which is growing in many other countries, Mr. Inoue added, has no more than 2,000 adherents in Japan, where all religions are trying to maintain a connection to the past while adapting to the future.
     "Nothing is growing in Japan," he said. Church membership and attendance are "lessening here, but the interest in spirituality is growing."
     "People are looking for something for mental healing, to ease the stress here."
     If anything, he added, Japanese are more interested in phenomena such as space aliens, UFOs, exorcism and psychic phenomena. "Uri Geller," he said of the self-described psychic, "is popular here."
     The Japanese have been vastly affected by globalization, in which "the religious culture has gotten mixed up," the scholar explained. "Japanese culture is changing because of so many foreign elements in it. People are still asking: 'Who am I?'
     "Less and less people eat rice in the morning. More drink coffee and eat bread. Our culture is changing, and so is our religious culture. No religion here has a proper attitude toward this situation."
     Michael Wenger, dean of Buddhist studies at the San Francisco Zen Center, said religion has to engage the culture to be effective. Buddhism is growing in the United States, he suggested, because of its allure among Americans as a sophisticated religion that encompasses faith and doubt.
     "But in Japan, a lot of people think of Buddhism as 'old hat,'" he said. "They think of it as ancestor worship."
     Masamaro Ohazaki, spokesman for Tsukiji Hongwanji, a venerable Tokyo temple belonging to the 10 million-member Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism, said attendance there is decreasing.
     "People today tend to be attracted by prosperity and commercial benefits," he said. "New religions or cults offer that. Buddhism doesn't offer such profits. It focuses more on life after death."
     Youth are more attracted to the "new religions," he went on — everything from Scientology and the Jehovah's Witnesses to several hundred variants on Shinto and Buddhism that sprang up in Japan starting in the 19th century.
     "Because the new religions have no baggage or history, they can do whatever they want," he said. "Buddhism with its dark, old image has a hard time adopting new measures."
     The Japanese brand of Buddhism is almost Hindu-like in its acceptance of multiple gods, said Shoshin Ichishima, a Buddhist professor at Taisho University in Tokyo.
     "Even Christianity's God we'll accept," he said. "But the Japanese like the oriental way of thinking. We are more into nature worship. In Japanese, the word 'kami,' for God, means an impersonal force."
      That is a major problem faced by Christians, for whom God is addressed as Father. Christian missionaries say that one would never use in prayer among Japanese the casual terms that Westerners use.
     "In this culture, you'd never address God on familiar terms, because that is presupposing you are on equal terms with that person," said Marty Shaw, who works in Tokyo for Conservative Baptist International (CBI).
     Moreover, historically in Japan, the mother is seen as nurturing, he said, while the father is stern and unapproachable — an image that only began to fade after World War II.
     "Even Japanese believers have a difficult time worshipping [the Christian] God, because the expressions are not their own," said Ken Taylor, a missionary with CBI. "Everything in a typical Japanese church — from the music to the architecture — is imported.
     "There are high percentages of Japanese converting to Christianity outside the country, but when they come back, they can't find a church like the one they left."
     "A lot of Japanese churches are set in a Confucian system, where the elders rule," said Gary Fujino, a Southern Baptist missionary in Tokyo. "These churches are not going to change. Some say the Japanese church is too indigenized."
     Observed Mr. Shaw of CBI: "When you enter a traditional church in Japan, it's a time warp. You are walking into a 1940s, 1950s kind of place. The church is irrelevant.
     "Christianity attracts here through its weddings and black gospel music, but that is all surface. Missions organizations are quite discouraged. But when the Holy Spirit decides to move, He'll move."

The three lodged the lawsuit with the Osaka District Court, demanding a total of 3 million yen in compensation and revocation of the city's decision on Oct. 25 to deny their applications for residency registration, city officials said.

According to the officials, Suita has so far prevented 11 Aum members from registering as residents.

Aum members have filed lawsuits twice against the Suita Municipal Government for similar reasons.

In June, the Osaka High Court turned down Suita's appeal of a lower court ruling in which it was told to compensate two Aum followers for rejecting their residency applications.

On Nov. 7, the Osaka District Court ruled in the second lawsuit that the city revoke its decision not to accept two followers' applications.

A number of local governments in Japan have refused to allow members of the cult, which is responsible for the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 and injured thousands, to register as residents.

Aum now calls itself Aleph.

The agency has been monitoring the activities of the cult, which has renamed itself Aleph, under an anti-Aum law, which stipulates the cult must be left alone once the commission determines it no longer poses a danger to the public.

The Public Security Investigation Agency wants to extend the surveillance on the grounds that Aum guru Chizuo Matsumoto, still on trial for the 1995 nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway system as well as other crimes, "continues to wield power over the cult" and can order indiscriminate mass killings.

Acting under the powers of the current surveillance authority, the agency has kept 88 Aum facilities in 16 prefectures under watch since January 2000.

The current period of surveillance for the cult will expire at the end of January. The agency plans to file the request at the beginning of December.

Matsumoto, 47, known to his followers as Shoko Asahara, has been on trial since April 1996.

He continues to deny the charges against him.

Twelve people died and thousands were injured in the March 20, 1995, subway gassing.

The cult filed a petition with the Public Security Investigation Agency in August demanding that it cancel the policy of keeping the cult under surveillance for another three years.

It also filed a request with the Public Security Examination Commission on Nov. 6 that it cease to be subject to surveillance, arguing it no longer poses a public threat.

They are watching Aum Shinri Kyo, or what is left of it. And though the doomsday cult that shocked the world with its nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways is much diminished, no one expects the round-the-clock vigil to end soon.

Seven years ago Aum unleashed sarin nerve gas on Tokyo commuters, killing 12 people and sickening thousands in one of the worst acts of urban terrorism until the Sept. 11 attacks.

Now renamed Aleph, the cult no longer has a sprawling compound in the foothills of Mount Fuji, and its membership has fallen from more than 10,000 at its peak to about 1,650.

Founder Shoko Asahara's trial for murder, begun more than six years ago, still drags on, but many of the cult's other leaders have already been convicted and imprisoned.

The cult has renounced Asahara, acknowledged Aum's past crimes and paid 330 million yen ($2.8 million) in compensation to the victims.

But public distrust has been heightened by inspections of the cult's offices and living areas that found materials suggesting it still reveres Asahara.

Its very visible presence here and other enclaves scattered around the country suggests the cult is alive and well.

"We live in constant fear, it's like living with terrorists," said Noriko Chiba, who lives near the five-story brick apartments and two smaller adjacent buildings that the cult now uses. "Aum committed all these crimes in the past how can you be sure they won't do it again?"

Experts are divided on that question.

Masaki Kito, a lawyer who has taken on several cults in Japan, believes the threat is strong and goes beyond Japan.

"Aum is not just a domestic problem," he said, alluding to revelations that in the 1990s the cult had an extensive network of followers in Russia and developed biological weapons in Australia. "If the authorities cannot contain it, Aum can spread sarin again, perhaps overseas next time."

Aum's membership includes 650 hard-core followers who have cut family and social ties and live at cult facilities. More than half of all Aum members are believed to have joined after the subway attack. The cult continues to run a profitable computer business and gets substantial donations.

Police, however, say the group does not pose an immediate threat to society.

Even so, officials warn against a false sense of security.

A five-year period during which police are allowed to keep close watch the group expires in January, and an investigator who spoke on condition of anonymity said it is keeping a low profile in hopes that the surveillance will not be renewed.

Fumihiro Joyu, one of the few Aum leaders at the time of the gassing who did not face serious charges, is now the cult's leader. "Our current group has undergone reforms and abandoned the use of any type of violence," he said in a statement published on his Web site. "We are not a terrorist group."

But the neighborhood association's fears have not been allayed since the cult moved in nearly three years ago.

It has collected 30,000 signatures demanding the surveillance be extended. Its representatives keep watch on Aum from a tiny booth as cult members in baggy yoga pants come and go, occasionally stopped for brief questioning by uniformed police.

The neighborhood has campaigned to keep the cult members from finding jobs nearby. To keep cult children out of local schools, the town office refused to register them until the Tokyo District Court called that unconstitutional.

Government to extend Aum surveillance 3 years

("Asahi Shimbun," October 09, 2002) Cultists still pay homage to their alleged evil guru. Saying alleged mass murderer Chizuo Matsumoto still holds his cult followers in thrall, the government is expected to tack on three more years of surveillance of Aum Shinrikyo, sources said. The Public Security Investigation Agency plans to extend current surveillance to January 2006 because the cult is still dangerous, sources said. The current monitoring term expires at the end of January 2003. The agency will file an extension request with the Public Security Examination Commission by the end of this year. The surveillance began in January 2000. It was authorized by a 1999 law to control organizations involved in indiscriminate mass murder. Creation of the law was driven by Aum's sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995 that killed 12 people and other crimes. Aum ``must still be kept under surveillance'' as it is just as dangerous as before, the sources said. The cult has since renamed itself ``Aleph.'' The sources said members of the cult still regard Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, as their holy leader. Matsumoto, 47, is on trial on charges of masterminding the subway attack and another sarin gas poisoning in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in 1994. Seven people died in the Matsumoto attack. Thousands were sickened in the two attacks. The organization control law can be applied if there remains a danger of mass murder, the mastermind of mass murder still holds influence, or members involved in mass murder still belong to the group. Since January 2000, agency inspectors checked 85 Aum facilities in 16 prefectures and determined Matsumoto's grip over the cult has not waned-meeting the requirement for extending the surveillance. The agency also considered the opinions of people living near Aum facilities when making its decision. Eighteen requests to keep Aum under continued watch were filed by local governments and communities, including Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. Aum officials opposed to the extension said there is no need for monitoring by the agency as ``it is already kept under watch by security police.'' The cult said it is impossible for followers to get directions from Matsumoto because he is locked up in the Tokyo detention house. ``Matsumoto has lost his influence over the organization, and there is no risk of recurrence of indiscriminate mass murder attempts,'' an Aum official said. The organization control law has been controversial from the beginning, with opponents saying it violates the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion. In June 2001, the Tokyo District Court dismissed Aum's request that the agency's monitoring be terminated. The ruling said the step was constitutional, but noted that ``there should be specific danger'' of a group starting to prepare for mass murder before such a measure is taken. Yasuhiro Okudaira, a professor emeritus of constitutional studies at the University of Tokyo, lauded the court decision as ``strictly in tune with the principle of freedom of religion.'' He said careful examination of the changes during the past three years is important before the agency's surveillance of the group is extended.

Extension sought for Aum watch

The agency has inspected 85 Aum facilities in 16 prefectures since January 2000, monitoring the group's activities under an anti-Aum law.

The law, under which the cult is obliged to report the names of its members and details of its assets to security authorities, gives the commission final say over whether the group is a danger to the public and whether ongoing surveilelance is necessary.

The agency has decided that the inspection should continue because Aum founder Shoko Asahara, 47, currently standing trial for his role in crimes including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, still holds influence over Aum members, the sources said.

("Mainichi Shimbun," Aug. 23, 2002)

AUM Shinrikyo, the doomsday cult that lethally gassed the Tokyo subway system, has made millions of yen charging people for religious leaders to pat their heads, the Mainichi learned Friday.

AUM leaders admit charging 1.5 million yen for cult figurehead Fumihiro Joyu to tap followers on the head for five minutes in a ceremony it calls "Shakty Pat."

AUM followers claim Shakty Pat sends a sacred energy through believers' bodies.

AUM, declared bankrupt in the wake of the 1995 subway gassing, picked up at least 100 million yen by reviving the practice. About 70 people are believed to have paid the enormous sum to undergo Shakty Pat this year.

"It's a fact that we did carry out Shakty Pat during a seminar," Hiroshi Araki, the cult's spokesman said. "It has made an enormous contribution to the cult in the past and some people made considerable donations. We haven't since sought any other donations."

AUM stopped charging followers for Shakty Pat in the wake of the mid-'90s crimes members of the cult committed. However, public safety officials believe they have begun the practice anew to gather funds to strengthen the cult for Joyu. Joyu is the effective leader of the cult as its guru, Shoko Asahara, remains in detention while standing trial on 17 counts of murder.

Tokyo ward to enact anti-AUM ordinance

("Mainichi Shimbun," June 5, 2002)

The ward government of Tokyo's Setagaya-ku is poised to enact an ordinance aimed at protecting local residents from the AUM Shinrikyo cult that allegedly launched two deadly nerve gas attacks, officials said Wednesday.

The ward government will submit a draft ordinance to the ward assembly for approval during a session that opens on June 12.

Officials said the move comes after a local court ruled that the ward government's decision not to accept residency registration applications filed by cult members is illegal and therefore invalid.

This will be the first local ordinance across the country that targets the AUM Shinrikyo, according to ward officials. The move is expected to spur other local governments to enact similar ordinances.

"We would like to use the ordinance as a springboard to step up efforts to ease local residents' fears over the cult. We will strongly urge the national government to place the cult under its surveillance over an extended period," a ward official said.

If enacted, the ward government could invoke the ordinance in cases where activities conducted by any organization placed under surveillance are deemed to threaten the peaceful life of local residents.

Under the ordinance, the ward government would investigate the impact that such activities have on local residents' lives and implement measures to ensure residents' safety.

Specifically, the ward government intends to investigate the losses the existence of AUM members in the ward have caused to the local community, such as a fall in land prices and an increase in the number of residents moving out of the ward. The ward authorities are also considering hiring experts to provide counseling to local residents disturbed by the cult.

The draft ordinance also states that the ward government can provide subsidies to organizations involved in anti-cult activities. The Public Security Investigation Agency placed the AUM Shinrikyo under its surveillance over a three-year period from January 2000 under the "law concerning surveillance of organizations involved in mass murder," which targets the cult. The agency regularly inspects the cult's facilities and orders it to report its activities.

Since December 2000, about 80 AUM members, including its leader Fumihiro Joyu, have moved into three apartment complexes in the ward's Karasuyama district. The ward government has turned down their applications for residency registration. However, the Tokyo District Court has ruled that its refusal to register them as Setagaya residents is illegal.

Shoko Asahara, founder of the cult, and many of his followers are under indictment on charges of involvement in many crimes he masterminded, including the March 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 people and sickened thousands of others.

Ex-AUM member gets life term for 1995 subway gassing

Kyodo News Service  
TOKYO, Feb. 17 (Kyodo) - (EDS: ADDING COMMENTS OF PRESIDING JUDGE, DEFENSE 
LAWYERS' INTENTION) 

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday sentenced a former member of the AUM 
Shinrikyo cult to life imprisonment for his role as a driver in the 1995 
sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system. 

Kiyotaka Tonozaki, 36, received the life term, as demanded by prosecutors, 
for providing transport to another AUM member Masato Yokoyama in the attack, 
which killed 12 people and injured more than 5,300. 

Tonozaki's lawyers said they will urge the accused to appeal the ruling. 

Tonozaki is the second person to receive life imprisonment for providing 
transport in the attack, following Koichi Kitamura, 31, whom the district 
court sentenced last November. Kitamura is appealing the ruling. 

Presiding Judge Takao Nakayama said Tonozaki played an ''essential role'' in 
the subway gassing, having planned it with accomplices in advance. He 
rejected the defense's claim that the accused was not fully involved in the 
attack. 

During the trial, Tonozaki apologized to victims of the gassing and bereaved 
relatives, saying he now believes the teachings of AUM founder and leader 
Shoko Asahara are wrong. He has quit the cult. 

However, Nakayama said he doubts the sincerity of Tonozaki's repentance and 
that the defendant bears serious criminal responsibility. 

The judge said it was merely coincidental that no one died as a result of 
sarin released on a train on the Marunouchi Line by Yokoyama to whom Tonozaki 
provided transport. That failure to take any lives should not be considered 
grounds for leniency, Nakayama said. 

Yokoyama was sentenced to death Sept. 30 last year by the district court and 
appealed to the Tokyo High Court. 

Asahara, 44, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is on trial over 17 
criminal cases, including masterminding the sarin gas attack, which took 
place March 20, 1995. 

Fourteen people were indicted on murder charges in the case. Prosecutors have 
demanded the death penalty for five of them including Yokoyama. 

AUM now calls itself Aleph. 

Aum victim can keep welfare pay

("Asahi Shimbun," Jan. 12, 2002)

In an apparent act of compassion, the government Friday finally let a

woman who became disabled after Aum Shinrikyo's nerve gas attack in 1995

keep the full amount of her welfare payments.

At issue was the 3 million yen in compensation the woman received from

the cult.

In general, welfare payments for victims of accidents or crimes are

reduced if the victim receives compensation, which is regarded as

income.

But Health and Welfare Ministry officials decided the court-ordered

compensation does not constitute income, and, therefore, she does not

have to return any of her welfare payments, sources said.

A ministry official said this is ``a special case.'' In fact, it is the

only time the government has not counted compensation as income of a

welfare recipient.

The 34-year-old woman developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

after cult members released sarin nerve gas on three subway lines in

downtown Tokyo on March 20, 1995, a morning rush-hour attack that killed

12 and sickened more than 3,700.

The woman survived the attack at Kasumigaseki Station, but her PTSD led

to the loss of her job, and she has been living on welfare ever since,

according to her attorney.

The PTSD also hampered her ability to move her arms and legs, and she

still undergoes hospital treatment.

She was entitled to welfare payments after being classified as a

first-class disabled person, which means her disabilities are most

severe.

The welfare problem emerged after the Tokyo District Court ordered the

cult to pay the woman 14 million yen in compensation. She received 3

million yen in 1998.

But the social welfare office in Tokyo's Meguro Ward in 1998 and 2001

asked the woman to return part of her welfare payments because of the

``income'' from the cult.

The woman's attorney accepted the compensation money on behalf of the

woman so she could continue receiving her welfare payments.

``The woman was the victim of the government's poor security management,

and the compensation does not mean her assets would be increased,'' he

said.

After a series of negotiations, the woman received the 3 million yen

from her attorney on Tuesday. She was allowed to keep her welfare three

days later.

Trial of Japanese cult leader hits halfway after six years

(Reuters, January 11, 2002)

TOKYO (Reuters) - The trial of the leader of a Japanese doomsday cult

charged with masterminding a deadly sarin gas attack on Tokyo subways

hit its half-way point on Thursday, nearly six years after hearings began.

Prosecutors wrapped up their arguments at the Tokyo District Court,

where Shoko Asahara, founder of the Aum Supreme Truth cult, is on trial for 13

crimes including planning and ordering the 1995 attack which killed 12

and left thousands ill, Kyodo news agency said.

The trial of Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, has come to

symbolise Japan's snail-paced judicial system.

The trial began in April 1996 and legal experts say it may take at least

six more years before the defence concludes its arguments and a verdict is

reached.

If convicted, Asahara -- who has pleaded not guilty except to one charge

of attempted murder -- is likely to be sentenced to death by hanging, the

maximum penalty for murder.

A number of cult members have already been sentenced to death.

At the 218th public hearing on Thursday, the defence team cross-examined

the prosecution's last witness, a former senior member of AUM accused of

helping engineer the attack.

The court has proposed starting arguments by the defence on May 23, but

defence lawyers want more time, Kyodo said.

"It remains unclear what the AUM members were thinking and why they did

such things," Osamu Watanabe, chief defence lawyer, told a news conference.

"Prosecutors say we are using stalling tactics, but this is invalid."

The cult, which has changed its name to Aleph - the first letter in the

Hebrew alphabet - insists it is now a benign religious group, but the

public still harbours concerns.

The deaths from anthrax in the United States following the September 11

attacks on Washington and New York revived memories of Aum, which two

years before the March 1995 sarin attack sprayed anthrax into the air above

its Tokyo headquarters.

Experts said the fact that it was a harmless strain designed to be used

as a vaccine for cattle prevented a disaster from occurring then.