Huang Lvping: Over Twenty Years of Reflection in Japanese Society on the Aum Shinrikyo Incident
As one of the world’s most representative cult organizations, Aum Shinrikyo (Japan) has continuously perpetrated heinous crimes since its inception, including murder, imprisonment, robbery, and theft. On March 20, 1995, the group carried out sarin gas attacks on three Tokyo subway lines, resulting in 14 deaths and approximately 6,300 injuries, becoming the most severe terrorist attack in post-war Japanese history. It was not until July 2018, when the cult’s founder Shoko Asahara and twelve other death-row inmates were executed by hanging, that the long legal proceedings surrounding Aum Shinrikyo definitively concluded. Addressing the question of why the Aum Shinrikyo incident occurred, various sectors of Japanese society have engaged in profound reflection and sustained research for over twenty years.
In the field of religious studies, works such as Susumu Shimazono’s The Trajectory of Aum Shinrikyo (1995) and The Possibilities of Modern Religion: Aum Shinrikyo and Violence (1997); Hiroshi Shimada’s Aum: Why Religion Produces Terrorism (2001); Toshihiro Ota’s A Mental History of Aum Shinrikyo (2011); Takashi Nakajima’s Why Aum Does Not Disappear (2015); and the Religious Information Research Center’s edited volumes Aum Shinrikyo in the Information Age (2011) and Verifying "Aum Shinrikyo": Boundaries of Its Interior and Exterior (2015) have provided comprehensive interpretations of Aum’s ideology, organizational structure, and developmental history. Beyond academic religious studies, works like journalist Shoko Egawa’s JSZ’s Ambition (1991), Tracking Aum Shinrikyo for 2200 Days (1995), and Why the Aum Incident Happened: Prisoners of the Soul (2006); novelist Haruki Murakami’s non-fiction Underground 2: The Place that Was Promised (1998); and journalist Haruyoshi Seguchi’s Aum Shinrikyo: False Salvation (2019) have used close-range tracking and interviews with current or former believers to present the reality of Aum from diverse perspectives. Furthermore, former members who were directly involved have published numerous notes and memoirs, such as Escape from Mind Control: The Experiences of Aum Shinrikyo Defectors (1995) edited by Taro Takimoto (a lawyer for the Aum Shinrikyo Victims' Assistance Defense Team) and former member Tatsuya Nagaoka; Aum and I (1998) by Ikuo Hayashi, a perpetrator of the Tokyo subway sarin attack; and Confessions in the 17th Year of the Aum Incident (2012) by Fumihiro Joyu, head of the successor group "Hikari no Wa" (Circle of Rainbow Light). these works detail the process of recruitment and brainwashing, exposing Aum’s numerous crimes from an internal perspective. The Aum trials were also a focal point of Japanese societal attention. Works like Shoko Egawa’s Notes from the "Aum Shinrikyo" Trial Gallery (1997), Ken’ichi Fubata’s The Aum Courtroom (1998) and The Aum Trial and the Japanese People (2000), and writer Ryuzo Saki’s Continuous Notes from the Aum Courtroom (1996) and Terrorists Without a Great Cause: 16 Defendants in the Aum Courtroom (2002) documented Asahara’s trial in detail, providing significant value for clarifying the full picture and exploring the essence of these criminal events.
This article focuses on the theme of Japanese society's reflection on the Aum Shinrikyo (hereafter "Aum") incident. It synthesizes the analysis of Aum’s cultic characteristics by various sectors of Japanese society, explores the reasons for its emergence and development, and examines reflections on strategies for dealing with cults, with the hope of providing a reference for anti-cult work in China.
I. Analysis of the Cultic Characteristics of Aum Shinrikyo
As a quintessential cult organization, the nature of Aum’s cultic characteristics is a key subject of Japanese societal concern. Various studies have conducted in-depth analyses of these characteristics across ideology, internal structure, and social activities.
(1) Ideology: The Syncretic Misuse of Traditional Religious Theory
Aum’s ideology is complex and multifaceted. Numerous religious scholars have organized and interpreted it, revealing Aum’s syncretic misuse of traditional religious theories. Regarding the content of Aum’s ideology, Susumu Shimazono summarizes it from a developmental perspective, noting that in the early stages, after Asahara learned yoga theory and practice from Agon Shū [1], he began emphasizing "liberation" and "enlightenment" based on his own experiences. He then transitioned to the concept of "salvation" while gradually strengthening the worship of himself as the "Guru." In the later stages, various apocalyptic prophecies and rescue plans were proposed, with the ideology constantly shifting and updating based on real-world circumstances. Hiroshi Shimada categorizes Aum’s doctrine as being based on Asahara’s own ascetic experiences with reference to Early Buddhism, Primal Yoga, and Tantric scriptures. It mainly consisted of four parts—Hinayana, Mahayana, Mantrayana, and Vajrayana—mixed with Christian eschatology, various forms of astrology, ancient Egyptian religion, and Koshintō (Ancient Shinto) [2], resembling a "toppled toy box" as a whole. Yūshō Miyasaka’s evaluation is even more severe, arguing that Aum’s doctrine is nothing more than an unsystematic "hodgepodge" formed from fragments of Hinayana (Nikaya) Buddhism, Indian Mahayana, a small portion of Tibetan Buddhism, impure Hinduism, the dregs of the Tantric-influenced Agon Shū (so-called "Kiriyama Esotericism"), Christian apocalypticism (specifically the "Final War" in the Book of Revelation), and elements of Chinese philosophy.
Regarding Aum’s absorption and appropriation of traditional religious theories, the academic community generally believes that Aum utilized various religious scriptures to legitimize its anti-social behavior. Shoichi Fujita points out that during his sermons, Asahara would arbitrarily distort religious theories as needed. For example, he reinterpreted "Phowa" [3]—which in Tibetan Buddhism originally means "transferring the soul of the deceased to a higher realm"—as "killing for the purpose of salvation." He also reinterpreted the Buddhist concept of "Upeksha" (equanimity or the "mind of detachment")—originally meaning to discard discriminatory attachments—as "ignoring the suffering of victims and the criticism of society." Such distorted doctrines provided religious justifications for Aum’s criminal acts. Takashi Nakajima also notes that the doctrine Tantra Vajrayana, which Asahara compiled based on Tibetan Buddhist Tantric scriptures, contained content affirming theft, murder, and adultery. This was precisely the theoretical armament Asahara used to accommodate acts of murder, divorced from his actual religious experiences. Consequently, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department also referred to this Aum doctrine as the "Murder Doctrine."
In short, academic research reveals that Aum’s seemingly broad and profound ideology was actually a syncretic hodgepodge of traditional religious theories driven by pragmatic needs, rather than any form of development or deepening. Furthermore, by arbitrarily distorting religious scriptures to defend its anti-social behavior, Aum’s ideology represented a malicious misuse of traditional religious theory.
(2) Internal Structure: Hierarchy, Personality Cult, and Mind Control
Regarding Aum’s internal structure, journalists, former believers, and scholars have exposed and analyzed the group's hierarchy, personality cult, and mind control from various perspectives. Journalists Ken’ichi Fubata and Shoko Egawa found through investigation that Aum possessed a clear system of "rank" and a "system of money and points," forming a rigid organizational structure and a fanatical personality cult centered on Asahara. Former believers provided numerous descriptions of Aum’s internal state in interviews and memoirs. Akio Namura, interviewed by Haruki Murakami, stated: "In Aum, if you didn't move up the levels, you couldn't talk about anything, and to move up, you needed the corresponding money. Only after reaching a certain level could you ask Shoko Asahara questions." He added, "When Asahara walked, believers would rush to lay their clothes on the ground for him to walk on." Tatsuya Nagaoka wrote of his experience leaving the cult, noting that Aum used various methods to implement "mind control" [4] on believers, including "proselytizing while deliberately concealing Aum’s identity, information isolation, sleep deprivation, malnutrition, confession, repeated viewing of videos, listening to recordings of mantras and scriptures, as well as imprisonment and drug injections." Ikuo Hayashi wrote in his notes: "I felt no need for the individual to possess a thinking consciousness to consider problems; eventually, everyone became a single whole, looking in one direction." He noted, "Living in 'Asahara’s World,' we simply could not refuse Asahara’s instructions." Through their own experiences, these former members presented the reality of Aum’s internal hierarchy, personality cult, and mind control from an insider’s perspective.
Building on the clarification of Aum’s internal realities, the academic community has also explored the mechanisms of its personality cult and mind control. Regarding the cult of personality, sociologist Gentaro Mizugaki argues that the "charismatic" relationship formed between Aum believers and Asahara transcended the rules of the organization and the ideals of the doctrine. This led believers to adopt radical "charismaticism," recognizing only Asahara’s charismatic authority and treating their relationship with him as the sole norm. Religious scholar Atsushi Takashima points out that Aum’s system of "renunciation" (becoming a monk) cast Asahara as a "pseudo-father" in a "fictive family," with disciples believing in the father’s infallibility like young children. Every time the father made a mistake, the believers would construct a theory to prove it was not an error, leading to a mounting accumulation of increasingly severe mistakes. The research of Mizugaki and Takashima reveals the formation of Aum’s internal personality cult from different angles.
In the study of mind control, social psychologist Kimiaki Nishida defines the "mind control" of destructive cults as "the temporary or permanent influencing and manipulation of an individual’s mental processes (cognition, emotion) and actions by others for the purpose of the organization, without the person being aware of the influence." He notes that the criminal acts of Aum believers resulted from psychological operations—such as habitualizing cruel and extraordinary daily routines—that caused believers to delegate their decision-making power to the founder and develop a conditioned reflex toward the various meanings assigned to criminal acts. Religious scholar Naoko Hirano, through an analysis of internal teaching materials, found that Aum required all believers to accept and memorize Asahara’s statements without question, pursuing ideological uniformity. Religious scholar Toshihiro Akimi, after analyzing recordings of Asahara’s sermons, also pointed out that for those outside the cult, Asahara emphasized impactful content like eschatology and Aum’s worldview, while for renounced believers and direct disciples, his sermons contained more elements of personality control. Regarding the "mind control theory" advocated by Nishida and others, religious scholars such as Yoshihide Sakurai and Toshihiro Ota have raised doubts, arguing that believers' actions cannot be simply reduced to the founder’s mind control. Despite the controversy, research on mind control remains significant for understanding the internal structures and operational mechanisms of Aum and other cult organizations, as well as for discussing corresponding countermeasures.
(3) Social Activities: The Greedy Pursuit of Economic and Political Interests
Numerous journalists, former believers, and scholars have also analyzed Aum’s various social activities in their writings, exposing the cult’s greedy pursuit of economic and political interests. Regarding economic activities, journalist Shoko Egawa systematically listed Aum’s numerous and expensive fundraising schemes, including membership fees, yoga course fees, lecture fees, and ritual participation fees. She noted that Aum established a mechanism for lending money to believers who were unable to pay. Journalist Haruyoshi Seguchi conducted a comprehensive audit of the commercial sectors Aum entered, covering computer sales, real estate, publishing, and catering. Because the participating believers provided essentially unpaid labor, all these industries achieved high returns. Former believer Hidetoshi Takahashi used his personal experience to denounce Aum’s exploitation and oppression of its members: "Many lay believers sold their land to pay for the PSI (Perfect Salvation Initiation) [5] rituals; those without money did not hesitate to borrow. Some were even forced to turn to the cult to repay debts or borrowed directly from the cult, and consequently had to work in cult-run companies to pay it back. The wages in cult companies were meager, and repaying a debt of 10 million yen was no easy task. They were thus firmly tethered by the cult, kept like livestock until death."
In terms of political activities, Aum formed the "Shinri-tō" (Supreme Truth Party) in 1989 and participated in the Japanese House of Representatives election the following year, attempting to enter the political sphere. Regarding this, former Aum official Kiyohide Hayakawa pointed out that the administrative obstacles Aum encountered during its application for "religious corporation" status and the promotion of various construction projects made Asahara realize the necessity of political power. Religious scholar Hiroshi Shimada believes that Aum’s series of crimes originated from the concealment of a believer’s death during ascetic practice; to prevent this secret from leaking, Aum committed one crime after another, eventually using the entry into politics as a means to hide all its transgressions. These analyses of Aum’s economic and political activities reveal that behind its religious facade, Aum greedily pursued secular money and power, manifesting the typical characteristics of a cult.
II. Exploration of the Causes of Aum Shinrikyo’s Emergence and Development
While dissecting the internal characteristics of Aum, Japanese society has also reflected on the social causes behind the cult's emergence and development. These social causes can be summarized into five aspects: problems within the Japanese social system, the absence of religious oversight, a social trend toward seeking spirituality, the sensationalist nature of media reporting, and erroneous interpretations by scholars.
(1) Problems within the Japanese social system Many studies attribute the fundamental cause of Aum’s formation to Japan's unique social system. The author Haruki Murakami believes that Aum absorbed those who had slipped through the cracks of the "main system" of Japanese society. This occurred because Japanese society lacked an effective and normal "sub-system" [6] capable of receiving such individuals. As long as this essential defect remains unchanged, Aum-like entities will likely continue to appear as "absorbent bodies." Former devotee Fumihiro Joyu pointed out that Aum shared many commonalities with the Empire of Japan (1889-1945), reflected not only in acts of suicidal warfare and attacks but also in the underlying religious ideology of "revering the god and ruling the world." He further noted similarities in information control and hostility toward the United States. Religious scholar Takashi Nakajima compared Aum to post-war Japan, arguing that no other organization has so vividly exposed the flaws of the post-war Japanese system. American scholars hold similar views; Daniel Metraux argued that Japanese youth lived in a highly standardized society from which there was no escape, while Aum provided them with a coordinated, pressure-free society—the primary reason it attracted so many followers. Robert Lifton also noted that the State Shinto [7] established after the Meiji Restoration provided a precedent for Aum Shinrikyo’s "Venerable Master" (Guru) worship.
These studies reveal, on one hand, how the "standardization" and "exclusionary" nature of Japanese society drove ordinary people toward Aum—that is, Aum was a "Utopia" created by individuals out of dissatisfaction with society and a desire to compensate for the deficiencies of reality. On the other hand, they clarify that the defects of the Japanese social system provided the political and ideological foundation for Aum’s birth. The cult’s characteristics, such as the cult of personality, autocratic dictatorship, and extreme xenophobia, were all reflected in Japan's past or present social structures. In this sense, Aum itself was a microcosm of Japanese society.
(2) The absence of religious oversight Scholars and legal professionals have pointed out that a long-standing absence of religious oversight in Japan provided the conditions for Aum’s expansion. Religious scholar Yoshihide Sakurai argues that an overly permissive regulatory environment facilitated Aum’s growth. Under the Religious Corporations Act enacted in 1951, religious groups—whether they had obtained legal status or not—would not face restrictions as long as they were not involved in organized crime that clearly violated the "public welfare." Furthermore, as long as the application requirements for religious corporation status (doctrine, believers, rules, etc.) were met, regulatory authorities were required to grant certification. This environment, conducive to the founding and development of religious groups, allowed Aum to freely conduct proselytization and "edification" activities just like any other group. Lawyer Masaki Kito, drawing on his experience fighting cults, noted that before the Tokyo subway sarin attack, cults in Japan were subject to neither legal nor social oversight. Since 1995, although legal regulations regarding cults remain incomplete, social scrutiny has become severe, making it difficult for large cults to emerge. Additionally, lawyer Taro Takimoto criticized police agencies for failing to effectively exercise their oversight functions due to preconceived notions (the "presumption of religious goodness"), leading to paralysis, negligence, and frequent errors in the investigation of Aum's serial crimes, which allowed Aum's atrocities to escalate.
Learning from the Aum incident, the Japanese government swiftly amended the Religious Corporations Act to strengthen post-facto supervision, information disclosure, and certification reviews, thereby tightening oversight at the state level. However, the Religious Corporations Act limits the authority of religious oversight departments to "non-religious" management and operations; they have no power to intervene in "religious" affairs within a group. Furthermore, Japan lacks a legal definition of a "cult" and specific anti-cult legislation. Following the 2022 assassination of Shinzo Abe, there has been a surge in domestic calls to enact anti-cult legislation modeled on the French experience, highlighting current deficiencies in Japanese religious oversight.
(3) A social trend toward seeking spirituality Some scholars and former devotees believe Aum originated from a social trend of seeking spirituality. After the 1970s, a "supernatural boom" emerged in Japan: television programs featuring supernatural powers, the paranormal, and UFOs became highly popular, and various doomsday prophecies were prevalent. Religious scholar Manabu Watanabe pointed out that Aum emerged against a social background that emphasized individuality and spirituality, shifting from the pursuit of material goods to the pursuit of the spirit. Scholar Hiroshi Shimada commented: "Aum’s greatest charm was providing methods of practice (shugyō) [8] for mystical experiences and a place to practice them. Many followers were young people, including those with high educational backgrounds. From the start of the bubble economy until its end, they were unable to follow the money-oriented trend of the times and felt a sense of nihilism toward it." Takashi Nakajima noted that Aum’s system of "renunciation" (shukke) [9] and its yoga techniques, designed for those seeking to leave the secular world for an inner world, were exactly what attracted young people. In the memoirs of former follower Ikuo Hayashi, one sees motives involving the suspicion and denial of material society: "People are busy pursuing status, fame, money, and pleasure, yet they ignore the preciousness of being human. They pursue fleeting pleasures like insects or animals and then wait for old age and death," whereas "Aum was meant to convey the teachings of Shakyamuni, telling people there is a different way of life."
Aum emerged at the right moment during Japan's spiritual trend; the world of practice it created catered to the spiritual needs of the time, leading many to join and follow it. However, the Aum incident did not signify the end of this trend. After the 1990s, a so-called "spirituality" (灵性) trend appeared in Japan, emphasizing personal awakening and self-transformation through transcendent and mystical experiences. This trend gave rise to various commercial forms such as fortune-telling, psychological counseling, and self-actualization courses, indicating that the pursuit of spirituality remains undiminished.
During Aum’s growth, the media’s sensationalist reporting was also considered a factor that aided its expansion. Regarding early promotional reports on Asahara’s supernatural powers, doomsday prophecies, and "Utopia" concepts by supernatural magazines like Mu (MU), scholar Shoichi Fujita argued: "Although the editors and most readers of Mu would not believe it, surely a small number of people believed it was real. When these people successfully draw nutrients from their social environment, they form real supernatural religious groups, of which Aum Shinrikyo is the most extreme." This view affirms the role of magazine media in converting Aum followers. As for Asahara’s frequent appearances on television talk shows and variety programs, journalist Shoko Egawa pointed out that some television stations invited Asahara and other cadres onto programs only to be exploited by Aum, turning the stations into platforms for Aum's self-promotion. Religious scholar Nobuyuki Kojima also argued that in the general variety shows Asahara participated in early on, television stations found it difficult to refuse Aum’s various aggressive demands, resulting in these programs becoming a means for Aum’s self-justification. Naofumi Nakamura, a member of the NHK Special report team, reflected: "The media chronically neglected to broadcast the voices of victims and always reported with a sensationalist attitude. They showed photos of Asahara levitating with great interest, gave him a stage, and broadcast his rhetoric, which ultimately promoted the expansion of the cult."
After the Tokyo subway sarin incident, the media—especially the influential television media—terminated all variety programs related to supernatural powers and ceased reporting on any religious groups in a way that might create a promotional effect. This can be seen as a major lesson learned from the Aum incident.
(4) Erroneous interpretations by scholars Additionally, some scholars have pointed out that erroneous interpretations by certain academics also played a positive role in enhancing Aum’s social image and profile. Hotaka Tsukada and Naoko Hirano noted that multiple scholars defended or positively evaluated Aum in interviews, articles, or television appearances, helping to boost its social visibility. The most representative among them were the religious scholars Shinichi Nakazawa, Tetsuo Yamaori, and Hiroshi Shimada. These three lacked sufficient investigation and verification of Aum’s true condition, ignored its inherent danger and idiosyncrasy, and conveyed incorrect religious information to society. After the Tokyo subway sarin incident, these scholars were strongly criticized by society and came forward to make excuses; Shimada stated bluntly that he had been blinded by Aum.
Regarding this, Fumiaki Iwata analyzed that Nakazawa’s problem lay primarily in his misperception of Aum’s "anti-social nature" and his justification of Aum’s "misreading" of religious texts based on a research philosophy that favored experience over text. Shimada’s problem lay in his personal intimacy with Asahara, which caused him to lose objectivity during his research, allowing him to be repeatedly exploited by Aum. Based on these failures in Aum research, Yoshinaga Inoue pointed out that researchers must conduct meticulous investigations and fully consider the impact of their words on the parties involved and society. Masayuki Ito proposed that for a case like Aum—which used researchers for promotion, deceived them, and had doctrines that diverged from practice—the research paradigm in religious studies that emphasizes "empathetic understanding" (内在理解) [10] does not work, as one cannot understand the full picture of the group simply by interpreting its internal language. Furthermore, after the Aum incident, scholars such as Yoshihide Sakurai and Shoichi Fujita began in-depth research into cult-related theories and other cult cases, most notably the Unification Church, expanding general religious studies into the specific field of cult studies. These reflections represent the academic community's reconsideration of research attitudes, paradigms, and perspectives.
III. Reflections on Countermeasures Against Cults Beyond strengthening religious oversight at the state level, various sectors of Japanese society have reflected on how to respond to cults based on the lessons of the Aum incident. Relevant countermeasures can be summarized into two areas: vigilance and prevention at the individual level, and publicity and support at the social level.
(1) Vigilance and prevention at the individual level Various sectors of Japanese society have put forward insights and suggestions for individual vigilance. Manabu Watanabe pointed out that people who become obsessed with new religious movements and cults often seek something different from tradition; however, a lack of understanding of traditional religion and culture prevents them from spotting the aberrations of these groups. He emphasized that if individuals possessed basic knowledge of Buddhism, Hinduism, and other faiths, incidents like Aum might be prevented. Naoko Hirano and Hotaka Tsukada argued that individuals should use critical thinking to read "authoritative" statements made by the media and experts. When faced with complex religious information, they should have the capacity for independent thought and judgment. Yoshinaga Inoue focused on the "pseudo-scientific" characteristics of Aum, noting that while it is meaningful for many groups in modern society to seek harmony between religion and science, one must be vigilant if a group exclusively presents scientific evidence and uses "science" as a condition to lure people into joining. Social psychologist Kimiaki Nishida pointed out that when facing the "mind control" of a cult group, one must focus on withholding judgment, gathering information, maintaining rational thinking, and constantly verifying the current situation, providing a reference for individuals to guard against cultic mind control.
(2) Publicity and support at the social level
At the social level, the religious studies scholar Shimada Hiromi has proposed that the media should adopt a neutral perspective when reporting on religion and that it is necessary to teach audiences methodologies for perceiving religion, advocating that the media play a role in the accurate transmission of religious information. In 1998, the International Religious Institute (JRP), a Japanese public interest incorporated foundation, launched the website of the Religious Information Research Center. This website aggregates and clarifies a vast array of resources, including news reports on religion, basic information on religious organizations, religious publications, and explanatory videos by religious scholars. This initiative has provided the general public with a relatively authoritative path for accessing religious information, aiding in the accurate identification and judgment of diverse religious data. Targeting the characteristic recruitment of young people—especially university students—by cultic groups [11] such as Aleph (the successor organization to Aum Shinrikyo), the Unification Church, and Providence, religious scholars like Sakurai Yoshihide and Kawashima Kenji have proposed measures such as teaching modern religious knowledge to college students and introducing information about cultic groups. Through participation in campus anti-cult lectures, consultations, and assistance activities, they aim to resist the erosion of university campuses by cults. Furthermore, following the Aum incident, psychologists, religious scholars, and lawyers formed the Japan Society for Cult Prevention and Recovery (JXCP), dedicated to providing exit counseling for cult members. The JXCP suggests that psychological counseling for cult members should focus on key points such as equal communication, proactive expression, active listening, and maintaining a natural state, providing a reference for helping cult believers leave their organizations and achieve psychological and spiritual recovery.
In recent years, an increasing number of Japanese universities have used freshman orientation or official websites to remind students to enhance their awareness of cult prevention. While providing relevant consultation and assistance services, they have also strengthened information sharing and collaborative exchange between universities, making campus the primary battleground for resisting cults in Japan. However, as cultic groups shift their proselytizing activities to cyberspace, with Providence and some smaller cultic groups growing in strength via online tools, Japan’s response to cults still appears weak and its effectiveness limited.
IV. Conclusion
In summary, over the past twenty-odd years, Japanese society has engaged in multi-perspective reflections on the Aum incident. Various studies have revealed Aum’s cultic characteristics: the syncretism and malicious misuse of traditional religious theories at the ideological level; the existence of a hierarchical system, personality cults, and mental control within its internal structure; and the greedy pursuit of economic and political interests in its social activities. These cultic characteristics of Aum are also manifest in groups like the Unification Church and Providence, providing an important reference for recognizing and identifying cults. Simultaneously, the analysis of Aum’s internal structure has provided significant support for understanding the formation and operational mechanisms of cultic groups, thereby effectively preventing their social harm.
Extensive research has also explored the causes of Aum's emergence and development, attributing it to multiple factors: problems within Japan's social system, the absence of religious supervision, the social trend of seeking "spirituality," sensationalist media reporting, and erroneous interpretations by scholars. It can be seen that the occurrence of the Aum incident was the result of the interaction of multiple factors. Among these, the problems of the Japanese social system and the social trend of seeking spirituality are environmental factors that provided the soil for Aum's rise. Japan’s unique social environment gave rise to a large number of isolated, marginalized groups and a consumer class passionately pursuing spirituality; such social groups are easily co-opted by cultic groups and provide nourishment for their expansion. Judging from the current proselytizing characteristics of Japanese cultic groups, Aleph and Providence still focus on recruiting marginalized groups isolated from society, using a certain spiritual pursuit as a gimmick to attract followers, indicating that Japan’s unique social environment has not undergone a fundamental change. Sensationalist media reporting and erroneous scholarly interpretations are incidental external factors that played a role in boosting Aum’s growth. However, the root of these failures by the media and scholars lay in the lack of experience in dealing with new religious movements at the time. With the continuous accumulation of research findings and the profound lessons learned from the Aum incident, the responses of media and scholars toward new religions and cultic groups have become increasingly mature. Meanwhile, the absence of religious supervision can be viewed as the fundamental factor in the Aum incident, as it indulged Aum’s expansion and allowed its illegal activities to go unchecked for a long time. The swift revision of the Religious Corporations Act after the Aum incident reflected the Japanese government’s attempt to strengthen religious supervision at the legal level. Yet, the persistence of "spiritual sales" [12] and illegal proselytization over many years, as well as the assassination of Shinzo Abe, demonstrate that Japan remains in a state of absent religious supervision and ineffective cult governance.
Furthermore, various sectors of Japanese society have reflected on how to respond to cults based on the lessons of the Aum incident, proposing coping strategies such as vigilance and prevention at the individual level and publicity and assistance at the social level. These suggestions and practices reflect Japan’s efforts to combat cults and possess positive social significance. However, it should also be noted that under the principle of so-called "religious freedom," Japan emphasizes that individuals are responsible for their own choices and behaviors, forcing individuals to face the immense risks brought by religious freedom alone. Regarding the participation of social forces, although the JXCP and many universities have played an indispensable role in resisting cults, Japan’s anti-cult social organizations suffer from internal disagreements and low efficiency, with a need to improve their information processing and organizational response capabilities. This also illustrates that in the absence of top-level leadership and unified command, the power social organizations can exert has certain limitations.
Facing the research and reflections on the Aum incident in Japanese society over the past twenty years, we can draw important lessons and inspirations to strengthen China’s anti-cult work. First, research on cult-related issues must be deepened. Particularly regarding the situation where domestic cultic groups actively use the internet to carry out online proselytization, we must deeply explore their online transmission mechanisms to provide high-quality theoretical support for targeted crackdowns on cyber-cults. Second, we should guard against cults that use the pursuit of spirituality as a gimmick and implement commercialized operational models. The pursuit of spirituality is often the key to people being attracted to cults. In recent years, "self-enlightenment" courses and "body-mind-spirit" (shen-xin-ling) [13] courses with cultic characteristics similar to those in Japan have been expanding in cyberspace; it is necessary to remain vigilant and preventative. Third, we should actively leverage the role of social forces. The Japanese model of building a cult defense network on campuses and the joint resistance of various sectors suggests that we should give full play to social forces. This includes using communities, campuses, and online platforms to carry out publicity and education targeting specific groups; integrating the strength of communities, schools, and families to provide necessary psychological counseling and spiritual care; and strengthening communication and cooperation between regulatory departments and scholars, legal professionals, and other social parties, thereby achieving the organic unity of state supervision and social prevention.
Most importantly, Japan’s lessons reveal the serious necessity of powerful religious supervision and cult governance. It is precisely because of insufficient supervision of religion and ineffective governance of cults that Japan’s cult problem has become deep-seated and its social harm long-lasting. This indirectly validates the correctness and effectiveness of China’s anti-cult work. On the basis of respecting the principle of freedom of religious belief, China has dedicated itself to protecting the public from cultic deception and manipulation through the promulgation of laws and regulations, the implementation of crackdown operations, and the promotion of publicity and education, effectively maintaining public safety and social stability. In the future, we should take Japan’s reflections and lessons as a mirror, remain firm in our anti-cult work line, and further improve the level of supervision and governance to construct a more harmonious, safe, and civilized social environment.
Web Editor: Tongxin Source: Science and Atheism, Issue 5, 2023