AUM Shinrikyo "remains a danger of inflicting indiscriminate mass murder" according to a government report released Friday on the group that carried out the 1995 lethal gassing of the Tokyo subway system.
Last year, AUM followers took several steps to deter Public Security Investigation Agency inspectors. They encoded computer data, hid videotapes of guru Shoko Asahara giving sermons beneath floors and in ceilings and covered up evidence of believers worshipping the accused mass murder.
Despite claims to the contrary, Asahara remains the focus of worship for AUM's followers, who still number in the thousands, including a band of 300 followers in Russia, according to a report on AUM's activities last year that was compiled by the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Justice.
As of last year, about 650 people were living in AUM facilities in Japan, while another 1,000 across the country professed to be followers of the cult that tried to bring on the Armageddon evil Asahara predicted would occur.
AUM still operates 28 bases across Japan and owns over 120 places where its members reside. Public Security Investigation Agency officials have provided 54 municipalities across Japan with information about AUM followers. Asahara is accused of ordering the use of lethal sarin gas on the Tokyo subway system in March 1995. The gassing killed 12 and left thousands injured. Asahara is still standing trial in connection with the case, but several AUM members have admitted being involved in the attack, some of whom have been given the death penalty for their crimes