Reader Ian. Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan. The Case of Aum Shinrikyo

Curzon, 2000. — 323 p. — ISBN 0-7007-1109-0In March 1995 the Japanese new relig-ion Aum Shinriky() and its leader A"ahara Shako achieved international notoriety as a result of the poison gas attack carried out on the Tokyo subway system. Shocking as it was, however, this was neither the first nor the last in a series of atrocities perpetrated by the movement (or more accurately, by highly placed members in Aum's hierarchy under the direction of Asahara) dating back at least to 1988. These ranged from beatings of members inside the movement and the secret disposal of bodies of followers who had died accidentally during the movement's harsh ascetic practices, to the murders of public opponents of the group and the manufacture and use of chemical weapons. The subway attack, using-the poison g-as sarin originally developed by the Nazis in the 1930s, led to a massive police investigation of Aum, which became the focus of public and mass media attention in Japan for months afterwards. The Aum afhlir (Oumujiken), as it came to be known in Japan, also attracted the attention of law enfixcement agencies around the world because it represented the first case of the use of weapons of mass destruction by a private organisation, and led to investigations into Aum's acquisition and use of chemical weapons by several such agencies and by the US Senate's Committee on Governmental Affairs.' The investigations into Aum by the Japanese police and by other law enforcement agencies, and the prosecutions that have resulted from those investigations, have naturally centred on the criminal activities themselves and on the misdeeds committed by Aum followers. The media, too, while narrating in detail these crimes, have largely been concerned with highlighting or sensationalising the bizarre aspects of the affair and ofAum Shinrikyo itself.