RT Article
T1 Twice Bitten, Once Shy: Religious Organizations and Politics after the Aum Attack
JF Japanese journal of religious studies
VO 39
IS 1
SP 77
OP 98
A1 Klein, Axel 1967-
LA English
PB Nanzan Institute
YR 2012
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1698506406
AB 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.
K1 East Asian politics
K1 Liberalism
K1 Political Influence
K1 Political interest groups
K1 Political Parties
K1 Politicians
K1 Religious Organizations
K1 Religious Studies
K1 Soka Gakkai