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

我们的研究目的是通过对奥姆至尊真理现象的考察，把握当今日本社会和人民的一些特征。我们所说的奥姆至尊真理现象，是指奥姆至尊真理邪教的信仰和实践中包含的一些特殊现象，特别是其残酷的反社会行为，如沙林袭击，以及普通人对此的困惑反应。为了达到我们的目的，我们从报纸、杂志、书籍和电视等方面收集了大量的信息。我们还采访了许多在东京、熊本、静冈、山梨等地与邪教有关的人。通过我们的研究获得的数据是如此巨大，我们需要更多的时间来完全分析它们。这一次，我认为，我们应该满足于提出了一些模糊的，但根深蒂固的焦虑蔓延在当代社会。​我们希望对这一主题进行进一步的研究。在不久的将来，我们打算澄清奥姆至尊真理现象在当今日本社会的全部意义。

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.