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Did Aum Change Everything? What Soka Gakkai Before, During, and After the Aum Shinrikyō Affair Tells Us About the Persistent “Otherness” of New Religions in Japan |
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| Author |
McLaughlin, Levi
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| Source |
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies
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| Volume | v.39 n.1 |
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| Date | 2012 |
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| Pages | 51 - 75 |
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| Publisher | Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture=南山宗教文化研究所 |
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| Publisher Url |
http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/
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| Location | 名古屋, 日本 [Nagoya, Japan] |
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| Content type | 期刊論文=Journal Article |
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| Language | 英文=English |
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| Note | Levi McLaughlin is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, North Carolina State University. |
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| Keyword | Soka Gakkai; Aum Shinrikyō; new religions; politics; Kōmeitō; Ikeda Daisaku |
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| Abstract | Scholars share a broad consensus that the Aum Shinrikyō subway attacks in
March 1995 fundamentally shifted prevailing attitudes against “religion” in Japan.
However, comparison with the case of Soka Gakkai, Japan’s largest active “new
religion,” complicates this view. In this article, I provide a counter-narrative to
the argument that “Aum changed everything” by showing that public officials’
strategies against Aum Shinrikyō from 1995 emerged in large part from a sustained
anti-Soka Gakkai campaign that intensified immediately before the Aum
attacks. Tracking interactions among politicians, the media, and Soka Gakkai
before and during the Aum Shinrikyō incident, I outline ways in which Soka
Gakkai and Aum Shinrikyō form part of a historical continuity of high-profile
“new religions” that public moralists have consistently scapegoated for political
gain throughout the modern era. At the same time, I also confirm that Aum
Shinrikyō did, in a way, change everything: Aum may have marked the end of
religious mass movements in contemporary Japan.
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| Table of contents | The Persistent “New Religion” Stigma: Media, Politics, and the “Otherness” of New Religions before Aum 54
The “April Society”: Anti-Soka Gakkai Activism Unites Foes in a Time of Turmoil 61
Soka Gakkai and Aum Shinrikyō: Disastrous Conflations 64
Soka Gakkai After Aum: A Centripetal Turn 68
Conclusion: Did Aum Spell the End of Religious Mass Movements in Japan? 70 |
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| ISSN | 03041042 (P) |
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| Hits | 685 |
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| Created date | 2013.04.16 |
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| Modified date | 2017.09.13 |
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