A Study of the Aum Supreme Truth Phenomenon to Understand the Present-day Society

本研究的目的是通过对奥姆至上真理现象的考察，把握当代日本社会和人民的一些特点。所谓奥姆至上真理现象，是指包含奥姆至上真理邪教信仰和实践的一些特殊现象，特别是其残酷的反社会行为，如沙林袭击，以及老百姓对此的困惑反应。为了达到我们的目的，我们从报纸、期刊、书籍和电视等方面收集了大量信息。我们还在东京、熊本、静冈、山梨等地采访了许多与邪教有关的人士。我们通过研究获得的数据是如此之大，我们需要更多的时间来完整地分析它们。我认为，这一次，我们应该满足于提出了一些隐晦但根深蒂固的焦虑在当代社会蔓延。我们猜测，这些焦虑可能与邪教有共同之处。为了得出这一假设，我们研究了山梨县神龟村这两个社区的对策。和熊本县的纳米诺村，都曾应对过奥姆邪教的活动，我们有愿望继续这一主题的研究。我们打算在不久的将来澄清奥姆至上真理现象在当今日本社会中的全部含义。

The purpose of our study is to grasp some traits of the present-day Japanese society and people by investigating the Aum Supreme Truth Phenomenon. By the Aum Supreme Truth Phenomenon we mean some particular phenomena which contain the Aum Supreme Truth cult's belief and practice, especially its brutally antisocial behavior such as the sarin attacks, and the much confused responses of common people to them.To attain our aim we collected a lot of informations from newspapers, journals, books and TV etc.. We also interviewed many persons who had been concerned with the cult at Tokyo, Kumamoto, Shizuoka, Yamanashi and so on. The data obtained through our researches are so enormous that we need a little more time to analyze them completely.This time, I think, we should be satisfied to have suggested that there are some obscure but deep-rooted anxieties spread in the contemporary society. We guess those anxieties are maybe shared with the cult In order to induce this hypothesis we examined the countermeasures of two communities, Kamikuishiki Village in Yamanashi Pref. and Namino Village in Kumamoto pref., which had coped with the Aum cult's activity.We have aspirations to continue the researches of this theme further. And we have intentions to clarify the total meanings of the Aum Supreme Truth Phenomenon in the present-day Japanese society before long.