TOKYO: Five years ago today, members of a doomsday cult poisoned thousands of commuters on Tokyo subway trains with nerve gas in an attack that still casts a long shadow over Japan.

Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth) has lost much of the strength it had on March 20, 1995, when its sarin gas attack killed 12 and injured thousands. But its tentacles still extend through much of Japanese society despite repeated official crackdowns.

Just two weeks ago, there was a stunned reaction to news that computer software developed by cult-linked companies was installed in several government ministries, including the Defence Agency, and at several major private firms.

Then came revelations that the group also wrote software for the police, software that enabled cult members to obtain secret data on police patrol cars.

Different software allowed them access to a manufacturing firm's data on the repairs and inspections of several nuclear power plants. The affected organizations shut down their systems and said no great harm had been done, but the reports about the computers fanned worries about where Aum might surface next.

A poll by the daily Yomiuri Shimbun of nearly 2,000 people earlier this month showed that 81 per cent of respondents still harboured worries about Aum.

"People are afraid," said Takanori Akiyama, a social psychology commentator. "After all, cults these days have the ability to conceal themselves in modern life, so they are much harder to spot.

"By the time you really see them, it's often too late. Something has happened."

Other bizarre cults are also grabbing headlines.

Last November, police found in a hotel the mummified body of a 66-year-old follower of a cult called "Life Space."

Agencies via Xinhua
China Daily 2000/03/20