Legal counter-terrorism policy against religiously motivated terrorism: The case of Japan's fight against Aum Shinrikyō

Aum Shinrikyō, a religiously motivated terrorist organization, made its name by attacking the Tokyo subway with chemical weapons in 1995. In this context, the thesis examines the transformation process of Aum Shinrikyō, which started as a religious movement, into a cult and then into a terrorist organization, the determination of its place among terrorism types, its characteristics that differ from other terrorist organizations, and the methods of struggle used by Japan. Aum Shinrikyō, which started as a yoga course at the beginning, has reached the ability to produce weapons of mass destruction on its own, and has carried out actions aimed at the lives of large masses. Despite this, Japan kept its fight against such a dangerous terrorist organization under control by legalizing religious organizations without restricting fundamental rights and freedoms. With this method, Japan took the terrorist organization under control and rendered it incapable of action. Japan prevented the emergence of a new terrorist organization by continuing his fight with religious formations such as Aleph, which is the continuation of Aum Shinrikyō, by legal means. In the Turkish literature, no other structure has been examined in terms of combating religiously motivated terrorist organizations or criminal organizations, other than the organizations associated with the Religion of Islam. Therefore, it has been determined that there is a gap in the national literature in this area. In this context, the aim of the study is to clarify Japan's anti-terrorism policy within the scope of religious-motivated counter-terrorism. In this thesis, which was carried out with the method of qualitative documentation analysis, the legal regulations brought by Japan in its legal struggle with Aum Shinrikyō, the inspections of the religious formations considered the successor of Aum Shinrikyō, and the trial process regarding the Tokyo subway attack were discussed. At the end of the research, it has been found that Japan is effectively fighting a religiously motivated terrorist organization and adheres to the values of law and human rights in this fight.