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The insanity of Aum Shinrikyo, now emerging with frightening clarity as police investigations progress, has shocked Japan. The followers of the cult (in this article, "cult" means a fanatic new religious sect) did not just believe in the apocalyptic prophecy of its leader, Asahara Shoko. Their blind faith led them to attempt to realize Asahara's version of Armageddon through their own actions: they kidnapped, murdered, manufactured large amounts of poison, amassed armaments, and carried out sarin gas attacks in Tokyo's subway system and in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, callously killing and injuring many citizens.
Such large-scale, organized terrorism has never been witnessed in Japan. Many people are tempted to explain away the cult as an aberration that appeared out of nowhere unrelated to modern Japanese society. Convenient though it may be, this attitude is harmful because it ignores how our society contributed to the religious sect's transformation into a criminal cult.
Aum Shinsen-no-kai, a small religious group from which Aum Shinrikyo grew, started in February 1984 in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward as one of the "neo-new religions," or religious movements created in the 1970s and after. Far from being a major religious influence, the group at that time centered its activities mostly on yoga and the sales of "health" drinks. The first break for Asahara, whose real name is Matsumoto Chizuo, came in 1985 when a picture of him supposedly floating in the air cross-legged appeared in the October issue of Twilight Zone, a magazine specializing in occult phenomena.
Adept at using the media, Asahara published many books. Riding on a wave of publicity, his religion grew both in size and influence. Aum's headquarters were built in 1988 in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture. In August the following year, Aum was licensed by the Tokyo government as a religious corporation. In February 1990, the cult founded its political arm, the Shinri Party, and fielded 25 senior members in that year's election for the House of Representatives. Its bizarre and yet strangely lively election campaigns, which included songs, dances, and marches, garnered a lot of media attention but failed to grab voter confidence; every one of the 25 candidates was trounced at the ballot box.
Today, Aum claims to have 10,000 members in Japan. The cult has about 30 branches...