Departments
Intermediate Japanese - Free Online Course
AUM SHINRI KYO
1995 was a difficult year for Japan. In January, a 7.2-magnitute hit the port city of Kobe, killing more than 6,000 people. Then in March, Japan was struck by a terrorist attack.
On March 20, members of Japan’s Aum Shinri Kyo religious cult released small amounts of sarin gas into the Tokyo subway system. The terrorists’ apparent motive was to bring about an apocalypse. The number of casualties was mercifully small (12 people were killed, although thousands were injured); but the attack made a deep psychological impact on a nation ordinarily known as a peaceful, law-abiding society.
Aum Shinri Kyo was founded in 1987 by a legally blind Yoga teacher named Asahara Shōko. Asahara’s religious message was a blend of Eastern mysticism, apocalyptic prophesy, and anti-Western diatribe. At its height, Aum Shinri Kyo claimed to have 50,000 members, but this number was never verified by outside sources.
The March 1995 incident prompted a change in Japan’s Religious Corporation Law. After World War II, this law had been written to assure religious groups the broadest possible freedoms. It placed severe restrictions on the government’s ability to investigate fringe organizations. After the Tokyo gas attacks, legislators amended the law to allow closer government oversight of groups that pose potential threats to the public.