Japan to Restrict Activities of Aum-Linked Group

Tokyo, March 14 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Public Security Examination Commission has decided to restrict the activities of Aleph, a successor group of the now-defunct doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, as a recurrence prevention measure under a related law.

The decision was made on Monday.

Under the law for controlling organizations that have committed indiscriminate mass murders, Aleph will be banned from receiving donations and using part or all of its 13 facilities in the country for six months from the day after the commission's decision is announced in an official gazette of the government.

It is the first time that the commission has decided to impose a recurrence prevention measure since the organization control law took effect in 1999.

The move came as Aleph failed to report its activities to the Public Security Intelligence Agency sufficiently under the law. The agency asked the commission to take the recurrence prevention measure in January.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]