Toyko, Japan - Aum Supreme Truth cult followers who support Fumihiro Joyu, a 43-year-old leader of the group, have begun living separately in a possible move to establish a new religious sect, according to sources.
Public security authorities are keeping a close watch on the developments, which suggest a split in the organization.
According to the sources, about 100 cult members - including Joyu followers - lived in three adjacent apartment buildings in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, all of which were used as the cult's headquarters. One of the buildings has now been vacated.
Since July, the Joyu group has occupied one of the buildings, while Aum's other members - including an anti-Joyu group - took over the remaining building, the sources said.
Toyko, Japan - Shoko Asahara, the man convicted of masterminding the gas attack on the Tokyo underground in 1995 may soon be executed. But the group he set up, Aum Shinrikyo, still exists and 11 years on, many people in the capital continue to live in fear. Imagine what it is like to live next door to an organisation that a few years ago launched a chemical attack on your own city.
The residents of a quiet street in downtown Tokyo where what is left of the former Aum Shinrikyo cult lives, know just how frightening it is. As you approach the cult headquarters you see long white banners reading "Get out of here Aum". Before you can go inside, a policeman checks your bags.
The neighbourhood watch lady wants to know what you are up to. It is all rather sinister.
And yet when you meet the cult members they are quietly spoken, friendly and rather disarming.
Rare interviews
These days the cult calls itself Aleph. The security services have raided their premises more than 100 times in the last six years It has renounced the violent teachings of its former leader Shoko Asahara.
Now about 100 members occupy a large apartment block, living together, worshipping together and trying to keep a low profile. The cult agreed to talk to me though, because its guru Asahara could be hanged soon.
There is some concern in Japan that that might make him a martyr. No-one knows how his former supporters might react and Aleph wanted to make clear to the rest of the world that they do not pose a threat.
Terror raids
Araki Hiroshi, Aleph's spokesman - who is stick thin and has the air of a monk about him - gave long and considered answers to all of my questions. Like his companion, Matsuo Nobuyuki, he was a member of Aum before the attacks. But both men claim they had no idea what was going to happen.
"I joined in 1990 thinking it was a religious organisation," Matsuo told me. "Five years later I found out I'd joined a terrorist organisation." The security services have raided their premises more than 100 times in the last six years.
But the men insisted they and other members of the cult do not pose any threat to anyone.
"Why those crimes were committed under the aegis of religious teaching and what our leader was thinking we have no idea," Araki told me. They were at pains to stress that the new organisation was really different to that led by Asahara. I do not know if I believe them.
Although there were no portraits of Asahara in the room where the interview took place there was a large stone that they worship, a stone they told me that had been "energised" by the guru.
They say they believe in the "Shoko Asahara who lives in the religious world and not the Shoko Asahara who committed those crimes". That is a distinction the rest of Japan finds quite difficult to understand and, as a result, quite unsettling.
Children of Asahara
Just how nervous the Japanese are about the cult and anything to do with it was confirmed for me a couple of nights later when I met two of Shoko Asahara's daughters at the office of his lawyer.
Neither of the two women was prepared to reveal her name. One was wearing a wig to partially hide her identity.
The other looks strikingly like her father. She says that wherever she goes, as soon as people realise who she is, she is hounded. "The public want us to be unhappy, to suffer," she told me.
"When Aum first went bankrupt we left the headquarters. But the police, the public security officers and the media followed us everywhere. We were under surveillance all the time.
"Then there were demonstrations. I had to leave school. Every time people found out who we were, the protesters began to kick us out."
The two women are now trying to save their father from the gallows. They believe he is mentally ill.
After years of solitary confinement he does not recognise them, they say. "He's incontinent. He mumbles incoherently and has no idea what's going on." They want the legal process halted.
Looming execution
Like Araki and Matsuo from Aleph, their strongest argument is that Shoko Asahara should be spared and his mental illness treated in an effort to persuade him to give his side of the story.
They too say they want to hear why he ordered the attacks.
But the courts disagree. They have decided that the cult leader is able to understand what is going on but chooses not to.
His appeals process is coming to an end and he could be executed at any time. But that will not be the end of the story.
At Aleph headquarters they told me they found their faith through meeting him. That is where they started. He is the foundation of their religion.
Shoko Asahara has no official position in Aleph itself, they say. But every member holds his image in their minds. And that is why their neighbours continue to worry.
Toyko, Japan - Lawyers for Shoko Asahara, the founder of the Aum Shinrikyo cult which carried out the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 12 people, will today probably make a final attempt to spare him from execution.
Asahara's legal team will probably argue an earlier appeal should have been accepted because lawyers haven't been able to talk to the cult founder, who is refusing to speak, a reason they cited for not submitting documents on time. The deadline for the appeal to the Supreme Court is today.
"It's unconstitutional,'' Takeshi Matsui, one of Asahara's lawyers, said in a phone interview on June 1. "His right to a fair trial has been violated.''
Asahara, who is 51 and whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, was sentenced to death in February 2004 after an eight-year trial for the Tokyo attack in 1995 and another gas attack in the city of Matsumoto a year earlier that left seven dead. The group is alleged to have killed 27 people in all.
He was the 12th member of Aum to be sentenced to death and the group's activities prompted authorities in Japan to strengthen state powers, including adopting a law allowing police to wiretap phones in criminal investigations.
The Tokyo High Court on May 29 turned down an objection to its decision in March to reject an appeal against the death sentence for the Tokyo attack and other terrorist acts. The High Court on March 27 rejected the appeal because lawyers failed to meet the deadline.
Releasing Gas
Aum Shinrikyo members released sarin gas at several points on the Tokyo subway system on March 20, 1995. More than 3,000 people needed treatment after the incident. The deaths in Matsumoto were also a result of the release of sarin, a colorless, odorless nerve gas described as being 26 times more deadly than cyanide gas.
Prosecutors at the time called Asahara the worst criminal in the history of Japan.
At Asahara's 2004 trial, Presiding Judge Shoji Ogawa dismissed defense claims he had lost control over his followers, saying it was clear he was involved in plotting the attacks. The group, which fielded candidates for parliament in Japan's 1990 election, turned to terrorist acts after doing badly in the polls, Ogawa said at the trial.
At least 189 people, including Asahara, were indicted. The cult, which was established in 1987 and renamed itself Aleph in February 2000, has more than 1,650 followers in Japan and 300 in Russia, the government said in 2004.
Appeal Failure
A rejection of the appeal by the Supreme Court will open the way for the death sentence to be carried out, according to Midori Tanaka, an attorney with Tanaka Law Office in Tokyo. If it's approved, the case would go back to the Tokyo High Court.
Japan's Justice Minster Seiken Sugiura must sign the document approving the execution within six months of the death sentence unless there is an appeal, a request for a pardon, a request for retrial or if any co-defendants' sentences are still pending, according to an official in the ministry who declined to be identified.
Once all the legal avenues are exhausted and the justice minister signs the order, the execution must take place within five days, the official said. Asahara is unlikely to get a pardon, another lawyer said.
"Pardons are very rare in Japan,'' Kazunari Watanabe, a general practice lawyer based in Yokohama, said by telephone.
Japan was criticized last month by Amnesty International for the secrecy with which it carries out executions. Family members are usually not told of an execution till after it's carried out, Amnesty said in its annual human rights report.
Retracting Comments
Justice Minister Sugiura announced he wouldn't sign execution orders when he was appointed in October, according to Amnesty. He retracted the comment soon after, Amnesty said.
``This case may prompt people in Japan to seriously debate the death penalty,'' Tanaka, the attorney, said.
Asahara, who is partially blind, studied acupuncture and traditional Chinese herbal medicine before he began to preach a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu theology mixed with his own apocalyptic ideas. His doctrine included the idea that murder may be justified and spiritually elevate both killer and victim.
Aum Shinrikyo renamed itself in an effort to create a new image under the leadership of Fumihiro Joyu, onetime Aum spokesman, who completed a three-year prison sentence in 1999. The group remains under surveillance and authorities periodically raid its offices.
Tokyo, Japan - The Japanese cult leader who masterminded the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway 11 years ago is a step closer to being executed.
Shoko Asahara's lawyers had attempted to overturn a High Court decision to reject their appeal against his death sentence.
Their petition has been dismissed, leaving them few other options to prevent Asahara being put to death.
Twelve people died and more than 5,500 others were hurt in the sarin attack.
The Aum Shinrikyo cult was found to be responsible.
After a trial lasting many years, the cult's leader, Shoko Asahara, was found guilty for his role in the attack and sentenced to death.
Asahara never gave evidence in court. His defence team and his family say his mental state has declined after years of incarceration in solitary confinement.
They believe he has no idea what is going on.
Supreme Court decision
In March, his lawyers missed a deadline to file an appeal on their client's behalf because they said it was impossible to communicate with him.
The High Court rejected their explanations for the delay. A court-appointed doctor believes Asahara does understand what is happening.
The defence filed an objection. That objection has now been rejected.
The defence now has five days to attempt to get the Supreme Court to hear the case.
If those efforts are rejected, Asahara could be put to death without delay.
Toyko, Japan - Fumihiro Joyu used to be the "public" face of Aum Shinrikyo. After years out of the public spotlight, Joyu is back - and with a vengeance.
These days, Joyu is spreading the word that Aum Shinrikyo under the bearded Chizuo Matsumoto spun out of control. He also says Matsumoto deserves severe punishment for the many crimes committed under his watch.
He wants the flock to know that Matsumoto was not an infallible god, just a mortal human like everyone else--with a capacity for evil.
In driving home this message, Joyu, 43, is trying to take over as head of the cult once and for all. He says his group will pose no threat to society because it will concentrate solely on religious teachings.
On May 14, he addressed several dozen members of Aleph, as the cult now calls itself, at the group's Tokyo headquarters in Setagaya Ward. During the three-hour session, he bluntly told the 80 or so followers to dump their faith in Matsumoto, now 51.
"It was our mistake to have deified him (Matsumoto) and carried out his orders without question," Joyu preached. "That is why all those crimes were committed."
A follower who was present recalled that the usually mild-mannered Joyu spoke in unusually strong language as he hammered away at his theme.
"Many of us are still controlled by a rule that the guru is absolute," he thundered. "But it is time for you all to abandon your emotional dependence on the guru and become independent."
Joyu may have a battle on his hands trying to convert die-hard followers of Matsumoto, who seem oblivious to the murders and mayhem that marked his reign.
Public Security Investigation Agency officials who have been monitoring the cult's activities say the organization is on the precipice of splitting.
That, say insiders, is why Joyu is trying to recruit Matsumoto's followers before it is too late.
Joyu was arrested in 1995 and finished a three-year prison term in December 1999 for perjury. He assumed leadership of the cult the following year.
Since then, he has worked to rebuild the group, but stayed well clear of the rabid paranoia that marked Matsumoto's reign.
Public security authorities initially viewed Joyu's attempts as nothing more than a ruse to convince society at large that the cult no longer harbors any intention to overthrow the established order or commit horrific crimes to achieve its ideological goals.
Joyu, however, was undaunted. In his efforts to create a new image for the cult, he instituted a ban in 2003 on reading Matsumoto's pronouncements. Senior cultists still loyal to Matsumoto tried to isolate Joyu. The result has been seemingly endless internal strife.
An irreparable fissure between Joyu and other cult leaders emerged late last year when the rival camps separately organized a series of seminars or fund-raising meetings. In March, the two sides agreed to divide the headquarters and residence into separate apartments in Setagaya. By July, they were maintaining separate records of accounts.
The following month, Joyu told his followers he would create a new religious order based on a doctrine and practices that have nothing in common with the former Aum Shinrikyo.
Public Security Investigation Agency officials believe that between 50 and 100 of the group's 650 followers who engage in communal life are likely to join Joyu. Of a total of 1,000 lay followers, it is estimated that about 10 percent may defect.
The relatively small number of followers who may seize the chance to start afresh reflects the fact that 90 percent of commune residents and 70 percent of lay followers joined Aum when Matsumoto was at the height of his powers.
In his efforts to convert Matsumoto's followers, an aide says Joyu explains that, unlike other leaders, he knows for a fact that the Aum Shinrikyo crime spree that likely will send several former senior cultists to the gallows was orchestrated by Matsumoto.
He also tells them that Matsumoto deserves execution for masterminding crimes, such as the 1995 sarin nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 and sickened thousands. Since Matsumoto's fate appears to be sealed, Joyu tells members to accept it calmly, the aide says.
Cult watchers view Joyu's efforts as a last-ditch bid to ensure Aum survives in some form.
Hiromi Shimada, researcher of religious studies at the University of Tokyo's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, said he believes Joyu's impatience reflects his fear that the cult will collapse once Matsumoto is executed.
"While it takes a form of parting from Matsumoto's influence, his effort should be viewed as an attempt to get a religion that was created by Matsumoto to survive," Shimada said.
Joyu's aides insist his motives are purely religious. They say he plans to get rid of any reminders of the past: Matsumoto's doctrine is out, as is the practice of chanting "Aum" during sutras. There will be no religious titles or names for members. Joyu even intends to stop providing vegetarian meals cooked at an Aleph factory as well as providing the strange headgear that used to mark members, as well as other items for training.
Joyu clearly is a man on a mission: He and his immediate circle are now hard at work compiling a new doctrine. They have visited famous temples and shrines across Japan to examine traditional teachings to include in the new doctrine.
The temples include those enshrining Maitreya, a Buddhist icon who traditionalists believe will salvage the world 5.6 billion years after Buddha entered nirvana. Joyu has often compared himself with Maitreya and is even referred to as such within Aleph.
Given this, Joyu's opponents suspect he is only trying to usurp Matsumoto's position as someone to be worshiped.
Aleph spokesman Hiroshi Araki told The Asahi Shimbun that the majority of current members regard Matsumoto as their spiritual leader. He said it is nonsense for them to worship Joyu.
"It will only end up being a Joyu-kyo (Joyu cult) with Joyu as the guru. That is not the religion we joined and have long practiced," said Araki.
"The guru and his doctrine are the only reason we joined Aum," Araki said. "Those who plan to follow Joyu are seemingly trying very hard to convince themselves (that Joyu's course is right), but I doubt how long they can maintain such self-deception."
Public security authorities and Joyu's followers say members of Matsumoto's family, including his wife, Tomoko, and third daughter Archary, have repeatedly told Araki and others to put a halt to Joyu's efforts.
The anti-Joyu group is widely known as the "A-group" within the cult because many believe it acts at the direct behest of Archary.
Araki admitted he stays in touch with the Matsumoto family "to discuss personal matters."
However, he denied they hold any sway in cult affairs, adding that once Joyu leaves Aleph, the remaining followers, based on each member's beliefs, are likely to more openly assert their faith in Matsumoto.
Toyko, Japan - The religious cult formerly known as AUM Shinrikyo and now called Aleph may be on the verge of breaking up, after leader Fumihiro Joyu told its believers it would be difficult to bridge the gaps between the pro- and anti-Joyu groups within the sect, informed sources said Wednesday.
He made the remarks at two seminars during Japan's Golden Week holidays this month, the sources said.
Joyu, 43, indicated he will break away by splitting the cult's financial assets and facilities between his group and his opponents, according to the sources.
He also said he will review the religious principles and training systems after launching his own new group, possibly around July, the sources said.
AUM Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara, 51, was sentenced to death at the Tokyo District Court in 2004 for his role in 13 criminal cases, including the 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 people and injured more than 5,500 others. The Tokyo High Court dismissed his appeal in March.
At the seminars, Joyu said it is necessary to establish an organization to accommodate believers following a possible finalization of the capital punishment against Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, the sources said.
Aleph has introduced a collective leadership since October 2003, when Joyu withdrew from the management of the group.
The anti-Joyu sect also held seminars from late April to early this month at six places nationwide.
Toyko, Japan - The bankruptcy administrator of the Aum Supreme Truth cult will create a new organization to handle payouts to victims of the cult's crimes, the administrator said Saturday.
Saburo Abe, a lawyer and the cult's bankruptcy administrator, said the new organization would take over debt claims of ordinary creditors other than the victims and collect debt and distribute money gained through the claims to the victims.
Though some followers of the cult, led by Fumihiro Joyu, 43, have hinted at establishing a new religious organization, Abe said the new group also should be held responsible for paying compensation.
If the new religious entity is founded, the bankruptcy administrator will demand both religious organizations pay compensation to victims.
Aum went bankrupt in 1996 with about 5.1 billion yen in liabilities. Altogether, 1,213 victims and bereaved family members are entitled to about 3.8 billion yen in compensation from the cult.
But by 2002, only two payouts totaling 1.2 million yen had been made, and annual repayments from Aum to the bankruptcy administrator were only 50 million yen to 70 million yen each year.
The third disbursement of money, to be made this year, will likely be about 200 million yen, Abe said.
Abe came up with the idea to set up a new organization to take over debt claims from ordinary creditors, such as companies that sold goods to Aum. The new organization will redistribute money collected from the debt claims. Abe plans to implement the new method starting with the fourth disbursement of money.
About 860 creditors held claims worth about 420 million yen as of the end of April. Of them, more than 70 percent have agreed to transfer their debt claims.
There is a conflict in the cult between the group led by Joyu and others admiring the founder Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara.
The current cult signed an agreement with the bankruptcy administrator saying it would take over all debts held by Aum at the time of its being declared bankrupt, and has continued paying victim compensation.
If the Joyu group leaves the cult to establish a new religious organization, Aum's financial capability will be weaker and it is possible the cult's payment of compensation will be further delayed.
Abe pointed out that if the Joyu group sets up a separate religious organization, the new entity will also be obliged to pay compensation, because Joyu committed to signing the agreement.
The purpose of the agreement was that Aum followers should pay for the compensation to show their remorse as members of the entity that committed the crimes, Abe said.
Toyko, Japan - Aum Shinrikyo, the cult behind a series of deadly assaults, including the 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo, is heading for a breakup, with a new splinter group likely to be formed as early as July, according to security sources.
The move, seen as an attempt to escape tough government surveillance, is being led by Fumihiro Joyu, 43, a senior Aum member and "representative" of the cult, they added.
The sources said the new sect would likely be officially formed in July. However, it remains unclear how many of the estimated 1.650 Aum members would follow Joyu.
Joyu has reportedly long been distancing himself from cult founder Chizuo Matsumoto, 51, who has been sentenced to death for his crimes.
The resulting tension, the sources added, has developed into a severe internal conflict between Joyu's supporters and Aum members who still look to Matsumoto as their guru.
Live-in members were notified of the breakup in April.
The group led by Joyu is believed to be holding a seminar during the Golden Week holidays.
The key to the establishment of the new sect is how many followers take part in the seminar.
About 80 followers are believed to have participated in similar seminars held during the year-end and New Year holidays.
Joyu had served as Aum's spokesman shortly after the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system, which killed 12 people and sickened more than 5,500.
He was arrested and indicted on perjury and other charges the same year.
After completing a three-year prison sentence in late 1999, Joyu returned to the cult.
The Public Security Examination Commission in January this year extended a three-year surveillance period of Aum until 2009.
Toyko, Japan - An Aum Supreme Truth cult faction has been asked to vacate a condominium in Chiba Prefecture it was discovered to be using as a religious training facility, sources said Wednesday.
In April, the Urban Renaissance Agency, an independent administrative agency that manages the building, asked the faction led by cult representative Fumihiro Joyu to leave the premise within the month.
The faction has refused to do so, but said it would comply with the request within three months. Some cult members still live in the apartment at the Narashino condominium.
Joyu, 43, often visits the apartment, leased in the name of a 40-year-old female leader of the Joyu faction, the sources said.
The woman, who still lives in the flat, said she would move out by July.
The agency's Chiba branch said it would keep an eye on the situation for a while, but that it might take legal action against the cult faction to get it to move out.
It is the first time the agency has found Aum using one of its condominiums.
According to the public security authorities and the agency, the woman was allowed the 96-square-meter apartment--with four bedrooms and a living room--on the condition that she would live alone. However, in early January, soon after she moved in, two female cult members joined her and many others began to regularly visit the condominium. After a while, Joyu began frequenting the apartment about once every two weeks, they said.
The Public Security Investigation Agency inspected the living quarters in February based on the Subversive Organizations Control Law. The agency confirmed that members who support Joyu were indoctrinated there and found books written by the sect's founder Chizuo Matsumoto, 51, who was sentenced to death by a district court, and video tapes of his lectures.
After questioning the woman early last month, the Urban Renaissance Agency determined the cult members were using the apartment as a training facility and submitted a written request on April 5 to three members demanding that they leave by April 20.
In response to the request, the woman refused to acquiesce, but said they would do so within three months. They are still using the apartment.
"We can't move out right away, because it takes time to find a new place to live," the woman told The Yomiuri Shimbun.
The Urban Renaissance Agency's rule concerning lease contracts stipulates that renters must get approval from the agency if they wish to use an apartment for purposes other than as a residence. The rule also says the agency can nullify the contract if the contractor is in violation of the agreement.
Tokyo, Japan - Two daughters of a former cult leader sentenced to death for masterminding a 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway are suing the government and a court-appointed psychiatrist after a court rejected his appeal, a lawyer said Saturday.
Last month, the Tokyo High Court threw out the appeal by former Aum Shinrikyo guru Shoko Asahara, saying his lawyers missed the deadline to file the necessary papers and that Asahara was mentally fit to stand trial.
Takeshi Matsui, a lawyer for Asahara, said he filed the lawsuit Tuesday against the government and psychiatrist Akira Nishiyama with the Tokyo District Court, but declined to provide any other details. Asahara's daughters' names were not disclosed.
Kyodo News agency said the plaintiffs are seeking 50 million yen in compensation.
The daughters accused the high court of "suddenly" rejecting the appeal a day before the lawyers were to present Asahara's case in order to block their submission, Kyodo said. They also accused the psychiatrist of having already decided that Asahara was fit for trial before interviewing him, it said.
Asahara, born Chizuo Matsumoto, was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to hang for the subway attack, in which his followers released deadly sarin gas on Tokyo subways during the morning rush hour.
The attack killed 12 people and injured thousands. Asahara was also convicted of plotting more than a dozen other crimes, including a 1994 gas attack in central Japan that killed seven, and the kidnapping and murder of an anti-cult lawyer and his family.
Asahara's lawyers say he suffers from pathological mental stress caused by confinement and is unfit for trial.
The nearly blind former guru, who once commanded a powerful group of some 40,000 members, mumbled incoherently during his eight-year trial, interrupting sessions with bizarre outbursts in English. He was also observed talking to himself and wetting his pants, his lawyers have said.
In February, psychiatrist Nishiyama submitted a report to the high court saying Asahara may be feigning mental illness and "had not lost the ability to stand trial."
All seven psychiatrists who examined Asahara for the defense disputed Nishiyama's conclusion.
About a dozen other cult members have been sentenced to death, but none has been executed. Three members wanted in the subway gassing are still at large.
Dozens of investigators swarmed the offices of a once-deadly Japanese cult Tuesday in a nationwide inspection triggered by suspicions that members still revere the group's former guru, now on death row, authorities said.
The Public Security Intelligence Agency inspected 11 offices of Aleph, successor to the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which carried out a series of murders including the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subways that killed 12 people.
The latest inspection -- one of more than 120 since Aleph was put under a surveillance order in 2000 -- came as lawyers for former Aum leader Shoko Asahara battle a death sentence handed down in his 2004 conviction for 26 murders.
About 160 agents checked facilities throughout Japan on Tuesday, an agency official said on condition of anonymity, citing agency protocol.
"There are still some who blindly follow Asahara, and we don't know what will happen," the official said. "So we are inspecting whether or not there is any danger."
"It seems that they are still active and we need to be extremely careful," said Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura.
The Tokyo High Court rejected Asahara's appeal of his death sentence in late March. His lawyers have filed an objection to the ruling, claiming the former cult leader is mentally incompetent to face justice.
The court is still deliberating the petition and it is not clear when a decision will be issued, a court official said on Tuesday on condition of anonymity, citing court policy.
Asahara, born Chizuo Matsumoto, was convicted and sentenced to hang for masterminding the 1995 Tokyo gas attack.
He has also been convicted of plotting a 1994 gas attack that killed seven people in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto, as well as the kidnapping and murder of an anti-cult lawyer and his family, and other slayings.
At its height, Aum claimed 10,000 followers in Japan and another 30,000 in Russia. The group later renamed itself Aleph, though authorities have long suspected members still followed Asahara's apocalyptic teachings.
Japanese authorities say about 1,650 people in Japan and 300 in Russia still believe in Asahara.
Tokyo, Japan - A private school has said it has refused to accept a son of the doomsday cult leader convicted over the Tokyo subway attack, whose daughter won a discrimination suit in a similar case.
The 12-year-old second son of Aum Supreme Truth founder Shoko Asahara passed the entrance exam, but the school asked him to decline admission "voluntarily" when they learned of his father, the principal said.
The junior high school in Saitama prefecture in Tokyo's suburbs returned through a court the fees the boy had paid, but the child's guardian has refused to take it and filed a lawsuit.
"This is a small, private school," principal Hideki Yaguchi told AFP.
"It is also located on the Hibiya subway line and local residents and students' parents are very sensitive" about the group, Yaguchi said.
Asahara, who preached of a coming apocalypse, was convicted of ordering the cult to spread Nazi-invented sarin nerve gas on the Tokyo subway system, including the Hibiya line, in 1995, killing 12 people and injuring thousands.
The 51-year-old former acupuncturist was sentenced to death in 2004 for the subway attack and other crimes that claimed a total of 27 lives.
The boy filed a complaint with the Tokyo District Court demanding 50 million yen (425,000 dollars) in compensation, Jiji Press reported.
"He was discriminated against for a baseless reason and forced to give up on his life goal which he had tried to achieve by going to the school," the boy's representative was quoted saying by the news agency.
Asahara's daughter had filed a similar suit, saying Wako University retracted her admission after finding out about her father. The Tokyo District Court in February sided with her and awarded her compensation.
Asahara, who preached a unique blend of Buddhist and Hindu dogma, is appealing the death sentence.
The Tokyo High Court landed him a major setback last month, refusing to accept a document explaining the appeal.
Asahara's lawyers had missed a deadline to submit the papers, saying they could not talk to the guru as he only mumbled nonsense.
Tokyo, Japan - Like good daughters anywhere, Mayumi and Kaori Asahara worry about their father's declining health. They are alarmed that he looks so thin and won't see a doctor. They fret that he refuses to wear the new clothes they gave him to replace his fraying old ones.
But they desperately need something back from their father too. They are seeking an explanation of why the man who taught them to cherish life, even that of an ant, could be a cult leader responsible for Japan's worst terrorist attack.
"I need to ask my father directly what happened," said Kaori Asahara, who was 12 in 1995 when her father ordered the Aum Supreme Truth cult's sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 12 people and made thousands ill.
On death row, Shoko Asahara isn't talking to anyone. Not to the two daughters who visit him regularly, not to his own lawyers who have tried in more than 140 meetings to get him to help formulate a defense that might save his life.
Asahara, 50, has been sentenced to death, and his time for final appeals has run out. In Japan's secretive penal system, he could be sent to the gallows at any time. But the prospect that he will provide any insight into his motives is becoming slimmer and slimmer.
Still, Kaori and Mayumi say he should not be executed. They say that their father is mentally ill and incapable of understanding what is happening to him, that he is a helpless cripple who must wear diapers to keep from soiling his clothes. He sits in a wheelchair, head lolling to one side. His left hand scratches idly at a leg or his chest.
He does not speak. He only mumbles, making no requests and seeking no last-minute mercy.
Mayumi Asahara, who has visited her father 28 times over the last 19 months, said he was "like a doll."
That is not the image the rest of Japan holds of Asahara. Prosecutors and prison officials contend the cult leader is feigning mental illness in an attempt to escape justice.
And when Japanese close their eyes they still see Asahara as he was when he was orchestrating mayhem: A white-robed guru with a flowing black beard and glass eye, a man who twisted the minds of well-educated men and women who seemed indistinguishable from everyone's else's sons and daughters. The image has become the icon of evil in modern Japan.
But the man in the picture is also a flesh-and-blood father whose children are paying heavily for his sins.
They have been bullied and banned from schools and fired from numerous jobs. They say they still are trailed by police and chased by media that manage to find them every time they move.
Now in their 20s, Kaori and Mayumi grew up in the Aum cult and recalled a very happy childhood.
"We were told: Do not kill and be kind to other people," Kaori said in an interview with three foreign journalists at the offices of her father's defense team. "Now we are told my father directed others to kill people, so there is a very big gap.
"I think the image of the last 11 years is more famous now," she said, tears welling in her eyes.
It was the only time during the interview that either daughter, dressed in sober business suits, cried. Both acknowledged it was "a fact" that the gas attack victims suffered, but said they did not have words to express their feelings about what happened.
Their father's lawyer said they agreed to talk with foreign media because they saw it as their last chance to pressure authorities to provide psychiatric help to Asahara instead of executing him.
The sisters say there is no point talking to Japanese media, which they say are more interested in reporting salacious details about Asahara's prison life.
"Some Japanese media say you are the children of devils so you don't have any rights," Kaori said.
"Whatever I do is all broadcast and most of it isn't true…. Rather than try to change our image, we just want them to forget about us."
But the family has not been able to drop below the radar.
Their mother was found guilty in 1999 of conspiring with her husband to kill another cult member. She was released from jail in 2002.
The Aum cult was declared illegal in the wake of the gas attack, but has been reconstituted as a legal group called Aleph. The sisters denied they were members of Aleph or any organized religion, and said they received no money from it.
"When the name was changed to Aleph, they sent us a form and asked if we would like to submit a subscription," Kaori said. "We did not."
The family name has cost Kaori part-time jobs as a golf caddy, convenience store clerk, waitress and grocery deliverer. She said she was fired from all of them when her identity was exposed.
"The managers would say, 'I'm sorry, but … ,' " Kaori said. Her close friends know who she is, and some have been harassed by reporters seeking gossip.
Two years ago, Kaori went to court when three Japanese universities refused to honor acceptance offers after finding out who her father was.
The courts overturned the ban and Kaori is attending one of the schools, which she declined to name.
"I am studying psychiatry so I can understand about my internal condition and understand other people from a scientific point of view," she said.
She already has had rare insight into human behavior.
Years ago, when bullying at elementary school drove their elder sister to cut her wrists and they feared she would kill herself, the family sought a meeting with the school principal to ask him to intervene.
They received no sympathy.
"The headmaster said: 'Your sister's life is only one. But many people lost their lives in the sarin attacks,' " Mayumi said.
In February, a junior high school refused to admit Asahara's youngest son. The principal said he could not guarantee the safety of other students since the 11-year-old, who was a newborn when his father was arrested, could conceivably be under the influence of the cult.
"The school never even interviewed the son; they just acted on the basis of the Asahara image," said Takashi Matsui, one of Asahara's defense lawyers. He said the boy and Asahara's other son had been prevented from attending elementary school.
Mayumi, 25, says she has no friends and doesn't go out much because she fears being followed. Instead, she studies law by correspondence.
In visits since August 2004, she has recorded her father's condition in notebooks, page after page of his mumbles and her impressions. And she looks for signs that prison officials are lying about his condition.
Prosecutors and prison officials say he acknowledges questions with a mumbled Japanese phrase that means "I understand."
"But he says the phrase even when he's alone," Mayumi said.
The sisters would like to move on with their lives, but won't as long as their father is alive.
Kaori visited Toronto last year and reveled in the freedom of being someplace where no one knew her.
"It was only there that I finally understood about the heavy pressure I'm under in Japan," she said. She would like to leave permanently, but for the time being that is not an option.
"Of course many things are bitter," she says. "But I think I would regret it if I didn't do everything for my father's case."
