AUM CULT’S QUIET COMEBACK CAUSING NEW CONCERNS IN JAPAN.

March 15, 1999. KITAMIMAKI, Japan (AP) – By Mari Yamaguchi.

Approaching the fourth anniversary of the deadly nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, the Aum Shinri Kyo doomsday cult is coming back to life. The group has been buying up houses and other real estate across Japan to set up new offices and meeting centers in what authorities describe as an ominous effort to re-establish itself. Police say members are once again preparing for the Armageddon they have been promised will come this year by their jailed messiah—Shoko Asahara, who is on trial for murder in the March 21, 1995, subway gassing and other killings. Aum’s reemergence has unnerved some Japanese, such as those who live near the group’s recently purchased house in Kitamimaki, a village about 90 miles northwest of Tokyo. The spacious two-story house with white walls and black roof tiles has a parking lot for about a dozen cars and is ringed by steel fences installed by the cult. It also is surrounded by villagers who have been keeping a 24-hour vigil for three months to make sure no one from the cult gets in. "We will not let Aum come into our village," said Osamu Koyama, the town’s mayor. Aum was stripped of its legal status and tax privileges as a religious organization, but the government concluded it was no longer a threat and stopped short of using an anti-subversion law to ban it. So members can still assemble, spread their ideas and raise money. Using profits from sales of computers and computer parts, for instance, the cult last year bought at least $1.65 million in real estate. Authorities see the real estate deals as just one element in a broader and more disconcerting effort by Aum to expand in a year that is of special significance to Asahara’s followers. According to the guru’s teachings, Judgment Day will come on either Sept. 2 or 3 and only cult members will survive. Possibly in preparation, investigators say, the cult has set up several offices or meeting places around the Tokyo Detention Center, where Asahara is being held while on trial. According to a recent report compiled by the government’s Public Security Investigation Agency, Aum followers have been instructed to worship the jail as a "holy place." "We must keep a very close watch on the group," the report warned. Aum has significantly increased its fundraising activities. Last year, its computer sales earned it more than $57.5 million, nearly double from the year before. And in the final four months of 1998, it earned at least $221,900 from 310 seminars attended by 7,000 people, the report said. "I’m concerned about the situation," said Kenji Kawashima, a cult specialist who teaches at Tokyo’s Keisen University. "Many young Japanese can be easily influenced by a cult with teachings that trigger fears about the turn-of-the-century catastrophe." Aum says its recent activities are not a cause for concern. "We are only looking for a place to live and practice," the group says on its World Wide Web page. Police cracked down hard on Aum after the subway attack. A total of 428 cultists were arrested and the cult was stripped of its legal status as a religious group and declared bankrupt. The cult is still a skeleton of its former self. At its peak, Aum claimed 10,000 followers in Japan and tens of thousands more in Russia, Germany, the United States and several other countries. It now has a core of only about 500 cultists who remain at its communes, but hundreds more consider themselves members although they have not taken the final step of giving away all worldly possessions. The trial of Asahara is expected to drag on for several more years, and most of the cult’s other leaders are likely to be in prison for the foreseeable future. But one of Asahara’s closest and most charismatic disciples, Fumihiro Joyu, is expected to be freed as early as November after serving time for forgery and other minor charges from a 1990 land deal. His return could be a big boost to Aum. While Asahara’s teachings still dominate the cult’s Web site, Joyu, who served as the cult’s spokesman before his arrest, is also featured prominently.

TOKYO, March 19, 1999 (Kyodo) – By: Maya Kaneko.

Shoko Egawa, an investigative journalist and authority on the AUM Shinrikyo religious cult, on Friday stressed the importance of education and information exchange in preventing young people from joining such a doomsday cult. Citing media reports that the AUM group, whose members are charged with various heinous crimes including the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo subways, has regrouped and is now expanding, she blamed a lack of public awareness of the group’s true nature as the cause of its newfound strength. "Today’s young Japanese people are not being educated sufficiently to recognize for themselves the terrible character of such cults," Egawa said. The award-winning journalist was speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the Tokyo subway gas attack, which left 12 dead and injured more than 5,300 others. Members of the AUM group, including founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, have been indicted in the case. AUM may appear "an attractive alternative" for young people trying to realize their dreams and identities and probing for a direction in life, said Egawa, who added she is still unsure why such youths are drawn to the cult despite knowing of its involvement in terrorist activities. Egawa, who started monitoring AUM’s activities long before the sarin gas attack, said even though most of AUM’s 200 followers who were indicted in various crimes have already been convicted, the group will not lose its appeal to the vulnerable. "Arrest, imprisonment or execution of criminals does not mean the end of the tragedy," Egawa said. She also said Japan should learn from the experiences of countries such as France, Belgium and Germany, where groups of lawyers are tackling similar problems involving religious groups. International cooperation and information exchange are necessary to see any victory in the fight against such cults, Egawa said. Asked about the possibility of future criminal activities by the AUM group, Egawa said she has obtained no evidence to indicate such and thinks the group currently does not have the capability to do so. "They will not engage themselves in such crimes unless they are instructed to do so by Asahara," Egawa said, suggesting the low possibility of future AUM attacks. However, she warned of the group’s reorganization when Fumihiro Joyu, AUM’s former spokesman convicted of perjury and forgery, rejoins later this year after serving out his jail term. Egawa won the prestigious Kan Kikuchi Award in 1995 for her investigative reporting on the cult.

 VICTIMS SAY 2,500 STILL SUFFER FROM SARIN AFTEREFFECTS.

TOKYO, March 20, 1999 (Kyodo).

Survivors and families of those killed in the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by the AUM Shinrikyo cult said Saturday some 2,500 people still suffer from aftereffects of the gassing. Shizue Takahashi, 52, leader of a victims' group who lost her husband Kazumasa in the deadly gassing, told reporters that many of the sarin attack survivors are still concerned about their health four years after the incident. Citing the findings of a survey conducted by the group and the National Police Agency, Takahashi and others pointed to the lasting psychological scars the attack left on its victims. "Some people see a psychiatrist once a week and others become uneasy when the anniversary of the gassing nears," they said. They also expressed victims' wishes for an early conclusion of the trials in the case and dissolution of the AUM cult. A 44-year-old man, who complained of sore eyes, urged the government to continue to investigate the physical and psychological harm done to survivors. At 8 a.m. -- the time the lethal gas was released -- subway workers and representatives of the victims offered a 30-second silent prayer for the souls of the victims and laid flowers in their memory in a ceremony held at Kasumigaseki Station. White chrysanthemums adorned an altar set up for the station's two subway workers -- Kazumasa, 50, and deputy station master Tsuneo Hishinuma, 51 -- who were killed in the attack. Altars and flower stands were also set up at five other subway stations in central Tokyo -- including Tsukiji, Hatchobori and Kamiyacho -- where people were killed or seriously injured in the attacks. The sarin attack killed 12 people and injured more than 5,300 others. AUM leader Shoko Asahara and other former senior members of the religious cult have been arrested and are on trial for alleged involvement in the release of the nerve gas in trains on five subway lines.