Cults & New Religions

Belief, power, recruitment, and the place of new religions in modern Japan.

Japanese law has no category for a cult and keeps no register of dangerous groups. What exists instead is a small set of ordinary legal instruments, used rarely and argued over in public. This section examines how belief becomes organization, how organizations acquire influence, and where the law has actually drawn its lines.

Editorial scope

What this section examines

Belief and authority

How belief and authority shape recruitment and belonging.

Religion and public life

How religious groups interact with public life and institutions.

Debate and definition

How new religions are understood and debated in modern Japan.

Published investigations

A photograph of a small rented room used for a yoga class, seen from the entrance step where five pairs of shoes are lined up: white sneakers, brown loafers, black flats and grey slip-ons. Inside, pale laminate flooring, two cream yoga mats still unrolled, rolled mats and folded blankets against the wall, a wiped whiteboard on a stand, a low table with a kettle, paper cups and a small red first-aid kit, a closed curtain across an alcove at the back, and a webcam on a tripod pointing at the empty floor. Late afternoon light falls from a window on the left. Nobody is present. AI-generated photo illustration; not a photograph of any real room, event or person.

Cults & New Religions

Does Aum Shinrikyo Still Exist?

Yes. The figure English Wikipedia still carries dates from a 2005 report. Japan makes the organisation report its members every three months, 105 times so far; the latest total is about 1,600.

Aug 30, 2026

A photograph of a very small disused religious hall in the Japanese countryside in flat afternoon light. A short flight of worn stone steps, overgrown with tall summer weeds, leads up to a modest wooden building with a low tiled roof and closed weathered doors. A wooden gatepost leans out of true, a cracked stone basin holds dead leaves, the paint has gone from the timber and one roof tile has slipped. Cedar trees crowd in behind. Nobody is present and nothing suggests recent use. AI-generated photo illustration; not a photograph of any real building or organisation.

Cults & New Religions

How Many Cults Are There in Japan?

Japanese law has no category for a cult, so nobody counts them. What the state does count is corporations, and three of them have ever been dissolved for wrongdoing. The register, compared.

Aug 14, 2026

A photograph taken from inside a dense crowd on the gravel approach path to a Japanese shrine at New Year. Hundreds of people in dark winter coats stand shoulder to shoulder, all seen from behind, shuffling slowly toward a large plain wooden gateway that straddles the path ahead; beyond it the crowd continues and the roof of a hall is visible. Plain paper lanterns with nothing written on them hang on a line overhead, bare branches show against a white sky, and a temporary barrier of steel poles and rope runs along one side. Cold winter light, breath and smoke hazing the air. No faces are visible. AI-generated photo illustration; not a photograph of any real place, event or person.

Cults & New Religions

Is Japan a Religious Country?

The official register counts 175 million believers in a country of 124 million people. Ask people directly and 28 percent say they hold a faith. Both figures come from the state, and both are correct.

Aug 11, 2026

A photograph of a small plain room lit by direct camera flash, in the washed-out style of a 1990s amateur snapshot. At the centre a low couch draped in white cloth stands empty, the cloth still creased and dented where somebody had been sitting. Facing the empty seat, a row of six old silver microphones on short stands is lined up along the bare floor. A plain blue cloth curtain hangs slightly crooked on the wall behind, a low white-clothed table at one side holds a green ceramic vase, and a folded grey blanket lies on the floor. Nobody is present. AI-generated photo illustration; not a photograph of any real room, event or person.

Cults & New Religions

What Did Shoko Asahara Say Before He Was Executed?

The founder of Aum Shinrikyo was hanged in 2018. Two accounts of that morning contradict each other, and Japan has never released a record that could settle it, from Japanese primary sources.

Aug 3, 2026

A photograph of a corridor in an ordinary Japanese municipal office set up for early voting, taken from the back of the queue. About twenty people of mixed ages stand in a slow line down the corridor, every one of them seen from behind, some carrying shopping bags, one holding a folded umbrella. Along the wall ahead stands a row of plain plywood writing booths with low grey side panels, each with a short pencil on a string, and a simple grey ballot box waits on a folding table at the end. Worn linoleum, pale institutional walls, fluorescent ceiling panels, a stack of spare folding chairs. No writing appears anywhere. AI-generated photo illustration; not a photograph of any real place, election or person.

Cults & New Religions

Is Soka Gakkai a Cult? What the Records Show

Japan has no legal category for a cult, so the label settles nothing. What Soka Gakkai is, why its parent sect expelled it in 1991, and why its party is in government, from Japanese primary sources.

Jul 30, 2026

Cults & New Religions

What this section examines

Belief and authority

Religion and public life

Debate and definition

Published investigations

Does Aum Shinrikyo Still Exist?

How Many Cults Are There in Japan?

Is Japan a Religious Country?

What Did Shoko Asahara Say Before He Was Executed?

Is Soka Gakkai a Cult? What the Records Show

Explore other research areas

The Underworld

Crimes & Cases

Society

Justice & Law

The Outside World