TOKYO, April 13 (Kyodo) - The Public Security Investigation Agency provided 72 local governments across Japan with information about the AUM Shinrikyo cult, including data on inspections of AUM facilities, between February and the end of last year, according to a report adopted at a cabinet meeting Friday.
In the report on the enforcement of an anti-AUM law, the agency said 40 local governments received information about the doomsday sect from June through the end of 2000.
The law, which took effect in December 1999, is aimed at monitoring and cracking down on groups that have conducted indiscriminate mass murders during the past 10 years, namely AUM.
In accordance with the law, government officials said, the cult has been under surveillance by the agency since February last year.
The legislation stipulates that reports be submitted once a year to the Diet, and Friday's account is the second. The first was compiled last May.
Justice Minister Masahiko Komura said at the meeting that the sect remains a potential threat, and that the report says its reclusive, deceptive attitudes are unchanged.
According to the report, the agency conducted inspections of 19 AUM facilities in 11 prefectures on 10 separate occasions from May 16 through the end of 2000.
No poisonous substances or dangerous materials were found. There were also no attempts to interfere with the probes, the report said.
Of the 40 local governments, Tokyo, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba, Gifu and Shiga prefectures received information on AUM from the agency on a total of 16 occasions. Fifteen municipal and other governments, including Yokohama, Nagoya and Chiba's Kashiwa, were given information on a total of 24 occasions.
As of the end of last year, AUM, which has changed its name to ''Aleph,'' reportedly had about 650 live-in followers and more than 1,000 believers who do not live with the cult.
AUM founder Shoko Asahara and many AUM cultists have been accused, some already convicted, in a series of crimes, notably the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 people and sickened more than 5,000.
AP-NY-04-13-01 0415EDT
Copyright 2001 The Kyodo News Service.