Cult

Cult (カルト) refers to the enthusiastic worship or adoration of a particular object. Also, a group of people, a heretical religion, or the name of a person.

Overview

Cult (カルト, karuto) tends to refer a type of religious worship. In other words, the fervent support shown by a group of people.

Derived from Latin word cultus, meaning "worship" or "adoration".

Originally, it meant religious activities such as "rituals and rites" and had no negative or critical nuance.

In Japan until the early 1990s, the term was used to refer to otakus who were too knowledgeable about a specific niche genre (e.g., the TV program Cult Q), but after the Aum Shinrikyo incidents in 1995, the term came to refer to dangerous groups that endorse abnormal reverence that is outside the bounds of social norms. While other countries had dealt with cults in the past, it seems like Japan did much later as Aum Shinrikyo became as an introduction to them, entering a much newer phenomenon for the country.

Current Usage

Originally, as noted above, the term was originally intended to have no negative connotations, but now its usage is not limited to religion, but has come to refer to groups that are obsessed with extreme ideology or excessively worship leaders and the like.

This is largely due to the development of the Internet, which has shortened the distance between ordinary people and crimes such as murder and fraud, and the environment in which people can express their true feelings without concealment through anonymity.

At the same time, the fact that anyone can start a business using the Internet in recent years has resulted in an increase in the number of people who "worship influencers with antisocial ideologies in a way that makes them stakeholders in the business" as a result of their selfish profit motive cannot be ignored.

Especially in 2022, in addition to the conflicts between ideological extremists over COVID-19 that still continue, various cults involving entertainers, politicians, TV stations, and central ministries, mainly YouTubers and the Unification Church, became an issue, and even the U-Can New Words and Buzzwords Awards intentionally excluded most entertainment industry-related nominations. This may have something to do with the fact that among those who praised Aum Shinrikyo mentioned above were numerous celebrities. An equivalent of this outside Japan would be scientology as many celebrities are a part of that cult as well.

As for otakus, it is necessary to use it with extreme caution depending on the time and case, as it can lead to derogatory expressions, but in fact, there are a large number of fanatics from within the ministry and a certain unscrupulous high-ranking bureaucrat who exhibits at the comic market using bishoujo designs as bait, so it is an unfortunate fact that it is an easy target as dupes to participate in a cult.

Because of the ambiguity of the definition, the term is used in a wide variety of derivative usages, with confusion such as labeling a cult, and the boundaries of the term are blurred.

However, as the above examples show, it is true that cults are not limited to their own group, but also harm those around them, and can cast a dark shadow over human society as a whole.