Axel Klein is a professor of Modern East Asian Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen(Germany).
關鍵詞
interest groups; religion and politics; Religious Corporations Law; Aum Shinrikyō
摘要
While a considerable number of religious organizations had tried to build and maintain political networks up to 1995 to protect themselves from unfavorable interference by the state, the aftermath of Aum surely was a test case for the effectiveness of this strategy and for the influence of religious groups in Japan’s political system. This article assesses both facets based on an analysis of the changes the relationship between political parties and religious groups underwent in the wake of the Aum attacks. The approach taken treats religious groups as organized interest groups vulnerable to the forces of the political arena. Aum’s terror attacks are placed in a comparative framework by looking at them as one example of incidents in which a group of originally noncriminal actors causes massive damage to human life or the environment. In these cases related interest groups often suffer collateral damage and collective punishment, just as most religious groups did after Aum. Instead of retreating from the political arena, however, these groups decided to stay in order to maintain political influence as insurance against future threats.
