Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama on Friday underscored the need for continued surveillance of Aum Shinrikyo, the cult that carried out the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system and another deadly nerve gas attack the preceding year.
Moriyama's remarks came as she presented an annual report on Aum's activities to the Cabinet compiled by the ministry's Public Security Investigation Agency.
According to the report, Aum, which has changed its name to Aleph, had about 650 live-in followers and some 1,000 nonresident believers as of the end of December.
The cult maintains 28 facilities in 17 prefectures and about 120 dormitories, according to the report. It also has facilities in Russia, where there are about 300 followers, the agency said.
"There is still the danger that the group may engage in indiscriminate mass murder," Moriyama told the Cabinet. "Continued vigilance is therefore necessary."
For the latest report, the agency inspected 27 Aum facilities in 14 prefectures, including Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo and Fukuoka, and made 42 reports on its investigations to 20 local governments.
Police last year searched 103 locations in 15 prefectures and arrested 20 Aum followers in connection with 16 cases. Some 5,600 items were confiscated as evidence.
The National Police Agency submitted an opinion statement to the security agency in November following a series of investigations into the cult.
Aum has been watched by the security agency in line with a law aimed at monitoring and cracking down on groups that have conducted indiscriminate mass murder during the past 10 years. Aum is the only group targeted at present.
The legislation stipulates that reports be submitted annually to the Diet through the Cabinet, and Friday's report is the fourth. The law, which took effect in December 1999, was extended for three years in February to allow for continued surveillance.
Several Aum members have been convicted in connection with the Tokyo subway sarin attack, which killed 12 people and sickened more than 5,000, the June 1994 sarin attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, and for other heinous crimes. The trial of Aum founder Shoko Asahara is still going on.
On Thursday, the Tokyo District Court held the last questioning session for Asahara in the trial, which began in April 1996. Prosecutors are scheduled to close their case April 24, when they are expected to seek the death penalty.