YOKOHAMA, Japan — The normally sleepy neighborhood of Isezaki has been in a frenzy since Fumihiro Joyu, a top leader of the Aum Supreme Truth sect responsible for a deadly 1995 nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway, took refuge here after his recent release from prison.
Right-wing groups patrol the streets surrounding the nine-story apartment building where Joyu is holed up, their sound trucks blaring anti-Aum pronouncements. Men with bullhorns stand outside the building shouting, "Joyu, get out! We know you have no place to go, but just get out of here!" Neighbors swarm, some decrying Joyu, others decrying all the commotion.
Similar protests have been held at Aum facilities across the country in recent months, as residents--who rarely tend to speak out in this country--seek to evict Aum members from their communities.
Two of Aum guru Shoko Asahara's children, a 5-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter, have been denied admission to a school in the city of Otawara, north of Tokyo. One community even built a moat outside an Aum facility to prevent members from returning.
The issue of how to deal with the cult--which is reported to be adding members as well as harboring $50 million from its computer retailing business--has ignited a civil rights struggle. It has brought to the fore the question of how to preserve the freedoms of speech, religion, assembly and choice of residence guaranteed by the Japanese Constitution while at the same time maintaining public safety.
It has also raised charges that law enforcement officials and legislators are fanning fears about Joyu to bolster police powers.
The parliament has already enacted a controversial law aimed at stripping civil liberties from "groups that have committed indiscriminate mass murder"--a law that clearly targets Aum but that does not name the cult directly.
The law--which took effect Dec. 27, two days before Joyu's release--gives authorities the right to raid cult assembly sites without a search warrant, to unilaterally evict the group from its facilities around Japan and to seize offenders' assets to compensate victims.
Meanwhile, Aum leader Asahara is still on trial. Of the 196 people indicted after the March 1995 attack--which killed 12 people and sickened thousands--162 were found guilty, including two who received death sentences that are being appealed, according to the Justice Ministry. Thirty-three remain on trial, and one person was found innocent.
