ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how Aum Shinrikyō and its two main successor organisations – Aleph and Hikari no Wa – have responded to these legal disputes in the wake of Aum’s coordinated sarin attack on the Tokyo subway in March 1995. Demonstrating that organisational changes within minority religions occur as a result of both internal and external dynamics, this chapter identifies two contrasting patterns in actors’ uses of the law. Firstly, the state has used legal mechanisms in an attempt to disband, regulate, and to monitor Aum. Secondly, Aum and its related members have used the law as a redressive mechanism to challenge decisions and policies by both state and civil actors, with mixed results. Whilst Aleph continues to maintain a ‘world-rejecting’ worldview that is closed to outsiders, Hikari no Wa, since its inception in 2007, has actively engaged with external stakeholders in an effort to end state surveillance of the group.
