Decades after sarin attack, cults lure Japanese followers

They should pass laws saying that reproduction of pictures or symbols of these physcos is ILLEGAL,

just like giving the Nazi salute in Germany is.

I thought Shintoism was the biggest ‘cult’ in Japan.

Shintoism was never broken up here

There are shrines everywhere!

There is huge a shiny new Scientology building next to the Yamanote train tracks on your left between Shinjuku and Shin Okubo going towards Ikebukuro.

Most people want to feel like they're a part of something and with so many people in Japan and around the world feeling all alone and without purpose.... well lets just say, the ground is fertile. With the Internet, there are plenty of new seeds being planted, hopefully upon harvest these new products will not prove to be toxic.

How about believe in yourself?

Never mind these nutters today or supposed saviours in our past.

Biggest bane on humankind is religion.

@WA4TKG - They should pass laws saying that reproduction of pictures or symbols of these physcos is ILLEGAL,

Would this apply to the general media too? By executing these AOM members they have only made martyrs out of them giving the other whacko followers inspiration. There should have been a total media ban on their executions and let them fade out of memory and existence.

The two most visible ones in my area are the Jehovahs, outside my local station several times a week, no matter how horrible the weather, and the Happy Science wackos, simply b/c of how frequently I see their political party posters but also their prominent, garish buildings in prime real estate areas--i.e. they're raking in the cash, which always makes me think how else are they using it? That said, I know some kooky Japanese Baptists and Soka Gakkai members. My aunt-in-law has dabbled in several different cults--she communes with spirits and other celestial beings. Total nutter. The most offensive thing I see every year are the end-day Christian cultists who are allowed to set up loudspeakers outside Kobe's most prominent shrine on New Year's Day, broadcasting their nonsense. I know the Japanese are pretty tolerant but that's one time I'd like to see a beatdown.

I'm my father's son--growing up if any godbotherer came to our door, you can bet it never happened again.

Personality based cults worry me. Off the top of my head I can’t think of one that’s ever had overall positive effects. 

In the ‘west’ there’s the putative prophets’ notion of messiah that has been used for the last three or so thousand years to attract followers who think he/she will 'save' them. Many of these folowers become devotees willing to accept their leader’s every word and do what he tells them to do. 

The infamous 20th century cults of personality, especially those of Mao, Stalin and Hitler, caused destruction never before seen. 

The 21st century cults of personality (fill in the blank) could one-up them.

The best hope to limit the negative effects of cults of personality is to keep participatory democracies - NOT authoritarian ‘democracies’ - alive.

The argument could be made that any religion is a "cult", and in my opinion it's a mistake to group them together.

One can hardly expect strong laws against cults when the Prime minister and many others in the LDP belong to one, Nippon Kaigi.

All religions start out as a cult. It is simply a numbers game, and who came first. Cults nowadays tend to be associated with the unusual because of the bad press some cults have received. You never hear of Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu terrorists being called cults even though some have committed acts as heinous as the AOM and the Manson family.

Aum, Soka Gakkai, Japan Communist Party、yakuza etc. - once they join, they cannot get out.

All religions start out as a cult. It is simply a numbers game, and who came first. Cults nowadays tend to be associated with the unusual because of the bad press some cults have received. You never hear of Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu terrorists being called cults even though some have committed acts as heinous as the AOM and the Manson family.

In a cult, a holy man tells you how to live your life, and what you are supposed to do, and controls your existence. In a religion, that guy is dead.

In a cult, a holy man tells you how to live your life, and what you are supposed to do, and controls your existence. In a religion, that guy is dead.

Exactly, if you believe in Jesus Christ, the cult started with him and his apostles. All the other religions I mentioned and the ones that I didn't started with a key figure and group of followers. Even to this day, those religions still have holy men that do the same thing: Pope, Iman........

I find it rather disturbing that the relevant authorities in Japan seem inept in cracking down on this.

In my opinion, the Justice Minister made the right decision in not commuting the death sentence to members of this cult for the murder of innocent people, but perhaps she needs to follow things up to avoid a repeat.

"The biggest cult (in Japan) is the Unification Church," said Yoshiro Ito, an anti-cult lawyer.

The ties between the far-right of the LDP and the Moonies are long, deep and well-documented. Here's Nobusuku Kishi, class A war criminal and grandfather of Shinzo Abe, having a friendly meeting with Sun Myung Moon, back in 1973:

http://www.chojin.com/history/kishi.htm

And here's Shinzo on the cover of the Moonies magazine Sekai Shiso in 2013.

http://rapt-neo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2013_3gatu9gatu_abe.jpg

It's well-known that leading nationalists in Japan are heavily connected to cult religions. Shintaro Ishihara never met a cult religion he didn't like, by all accounts. Here's an interesting series of articles about the connections between far-right cultists Happy Science and the American Conservative Union. Steve Bannon was in Tokyo last year meeting with these people.

http://www.mutantfrog.com/2017/02/26/politician-from-japanese-cult-happy-science-at-cpac/

The Japanese media coverage of these cult religions is poor. If they'd done their jobs properly in the early 90s then the Aum outrages may well have been stopped. As for Yoshiyuki Kono, the man falsely accused by the police and media for the Matsumoto sarin attack:

" He pointed to the police, who conducted far-fetched investigations, the media that went crazy with speculations, and administrative agencies that overlooked the cult's illegally constructed buildings and asked that they do everything they can to prevent a recurrence. "I hope that they will all take their jobs seriously, and conduct themselves as professionals," he said."

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180727/p2a/00m/0na/031000c

Some cults are destructive others aren’t. Some try building character, others destroy souls. Many follow nothing, only their physical desires and call themselves civilized. Let them / us be. Cult is a very loosely used term, derivatively used against anyone that doesn’t toe the Line as they would have. The best cult is the one breaking barriers, which ever they may be. Nationalism is itself a major cult, with elite shepherding their people.

Derisively

Japan's execution seems always just another day. Whole Aum case is ended and now in the history.

How about so called spiritual leaders (Indians & Westerners), fake meditation gurus, healers etc we have in the West? Wouldn't say they're all 'dangerous' cult leaders (they mostly target ppl's wallet) but they do have a lot of influence over their disciples i.e. the yoga/meditation/Buddhist/vegan crowd.

The lost souls of Aum were and are the inevitable products of the peculiarities of Japanese culture and society. Such individuals suffer from a variety of mental conditions that makes them unable to conform to the mores of the majority, succinctly subsumed under that sinister dog-whistle word 常識, and often misleadingly translated as "common sense". Unable to enter the regimented ranks of society's mainstream organizations these ronin psychos find themselves fatally attracted, like iron-filings, to cult groups on the periphery led by "charismatic" individuals mimicking the top-down hierarchical structures under which Japanese have been ruled for centuries. Only an education system that promotes critical THINKING can break this fatal chain. Sadly, after many years of experience in education, I am not sanguine about the prospects of any significant changes to the deeply ingrained conservatism and group-think mentality that undergirds the education of young. We have no reason to doubt that Japanese society will continue to produce alienated individuals suffering from anomie to swell the ranks of cults. It is, therefore, illogical to believe that the noose, despite the severe assurances of the lady Justice Minister, will ever deter deranged individuals from committing anti-social acts.

It doesn’t matter how much knowledge humans accrue our understanding of the meaning of life is no better now than it has ever been. Some who look for answers from either science or religion, or both, are left unfulfilled. A certain segment of humanity will always be compelled to seek answers to questions that are beyond our capacity to truly understand. Maybe that is the reason for the allure of cults.

LDP (Nippon Kaigi) has a major political party to keep them in power. Komeito. They are a cult. My partner was bullied by a member to give money and go to a meeting. The women was her boss. Difficult for them, luckily the woman changed companies and we changed houses.

Do the hustleToday  07:53 am JST

There should have been a total media ban on their executions and let them fade out of memory and existence.

There is something very disturbing about a user commenting on a news story demanding the state enact a policy that forbids him from learning the news. That's even before we examine the fact that the news being demanded to be silenced is the state's decision to execute one of its citizens.

YubaruToday  08:01 am JST

The argument could be made that any religion is a "cult", and in my opinion it's a mistake to group them together.

You could, but it would be a disingenuous argument that relies on fallaciously conflating two separate meanings of the world "cult". In it's anthropological usage, yes, a "cult" is merely a small religion, but in this usage the term is also value-neutral.

The meaning of "cult" in mainstream discourse is decidedly more negative. A cult in the mainstream use is a small religious group that among other things:

Puts pressure on people to make snap decisions (for example, to join) without thinking it through,

Claims the cult leader has special insight, powers, or is divine, and so must be obeyed in all things,

Is closed to the outside world of non-members, especially if there is a secretive inner circle,

Uses knowingly deceptive means to recruit people,

Exploits followers financially, psychologically, emotionally and/or sexually

Threatens people who leave the cult, intimidates people into staying.

Large religions we don't call cults rarely have all or even most of these attributes. You're welcome to dislike religions as you wish, but let's be intellectually honest when discussing them.

One of Japan’s beauties is the lack of religion and healthy suspicion of those attempting to proselytize for it. Unfortunately, there are people susceptible to liars, crackpots and rip-off artists in every culture. I’m not sure there is any way to stop this. I hear some say better education in science can help people see through the idiotic claims by cults/religions but the brain is more than capable of holding contradictory ideas.

We are still pretty stupid mammals. No quick cure for that.

It reminds me Japan is one of the most pacific country in the world where these days this country has a magnetic attractiveness to have more and more visitors from abroad...Just from my point of view, living and checking this modern times in Japan, there were some radical and extreme tendencies for ideological and cult group of followers/believers who were/are brain-washed to find "perfectionism" amongst them and the others to confront as "foes". Probably the world also has this tendencies from the uncertain, unsafe and stressed social life like that IS volunteers who directed them to Middle East conflicts. The 100 years of modernization in Japan was so fast to find so many social contrasts that also created those anti-social groups from extreme righ twing nationalists+yakuzas to anti-government J. red army, and consecutively this cult religion of Aum, a group which had altogether kind of those extremist elements. Now we can see some nerds crimes, too. Japan is on the way and I only want to make myself careful from those radical extremists.

In a spiritual desert, something often fills the void.

In a spiritual desert, something often fills the void.

You are assuming that there is a spiritual void that needs to be filled. There is clearly a void in these people's lives but it is not spiritual - it is just that they fill it with something spiritual in nature.

Stop giving them tax breaks and these cults will soon disappear.

I just wanted to add my comment I left earlier. there are so many many attracted stuffs people spend money, time and the pride for something that it could be his/her dream. But the reality their are barriers and hurdles they could be fraudulent or fake approaches. Cult groups have kind of that to find "baits of their fishing style". It could be "religious or financial matters". Japan has its people so disciplined and diligent to those groups approach you. That I really want to explain to be careful or you'll another scapegoat that those guys are always targeting.

Nasubi;

The people I say is about us normal people, not those minorities of fanatics to approach you. It means not only religious but also financial approaches. Warning for them, their are in internet, too!

They should pass laws saying that reproduction of pictures or symbols of these physcos is ILLEGAL, just like giving the Nazi salute in Germany is.

No. Freedom of speech is the most important human right. I do not like Asahara. I do not like Nazi. But do not follow this Germany's big mistake, an oppression of freedom of minority opinions.