<![CDATA[Will handing over of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara's ashes to family lead to group's comeback?]>
On the anniversary of his execution, one of the daughters of the founder of Japan's notorious Aum Shinrikyo cult is locked in a bitter legal battle with the rest of her family for his ashes.
Shoko Asahara, 63, was executed on July 6 last year, along with six other senior members of the cult, for a series of crimes, including the 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway trains, which killed 13 people.
Asahara's body was cremated soon after he was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House but his ashes remain there because his family disagrees over what to do with them.
There is also concern that if the ashes are handed over to relatives who are still members of the cult, they might become a rallying point or an object of veneration for followers, who continue to adhere to Asahara's teaching.
The fourth daughter of the group's founder applied to the Tokyo Family Court in December to have her father's remains handed to her, claiming that it was Asahara's wish. The 29-year-old woman has been successful in petitioning previous court hearings to protect her privacy, with judges telling local media not to release her name.
The woman told the court, which is expected to issue a ruling soon, that she had renounced Aum Shinrikyo, was estranged from her mother and siblings and she wants to scatter her father's ashes from a boat in the Pacific Ocean, national broadcaster NHK reported.
Aum Shinrikyo followers attend a training session in Tokyo in 1999. Photo: Reuters
Asahara's daughter added that she is concerned that simply burying her father's remains would create a "sacred site" for his followers.
"The police and the government sympathise strongly with this request because that is exactly the concern that they have," said Mieko Nakabayashi, a professor in the school of social sciences at Tokyo's Waseda University.
"They fear that returning his remains to what is left of the cult will give his followers new energy and that they will elevate him to a god because they have these ashes," she said. "There is still a lot of concern among the authorities " and among ordinary people " that this cult could come back and that it is still dangerous. We do not think that it has changed its way of thinking."
Asahara's wife, Tomoko, and three of her other five children have submitted a request to the Justice Ministry to be given custody of his ashes. They also contest the claim by Asahara's other daughter that he gave her control over his remains after his death.
In a blog post, Asahara's third daughter, Rika Matsumoto, claimed that it was impossible for her father to have decided who should have his remains because of his poor state of mental health after his conviction. She described her father as a "broken man", who was incapable of communicating with anyone.
Tomoko is now a member of one of two splinter groups that emerged after Aum was forcibly disbanded by the Japanese police. While Hikari no Wa claims to have renounced Asahara's teachings, the other group, Aleph, still follows his pronouncements.
The two organisations have at least 34 properties across the country and an estimated 1,650 followers, many of whom are young and are recruited through university yoga or meditation classes and some of the members are unaware of the groups' violent past.
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
