Aum Shinrikyo

• 1. Introduction

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  Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese doomsday movement founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987, once published comics and animated cartoons. The cartoons tied its religious ideas to anime and manga staples such as space missions, powerful weapons and world conspiracies. By the end of 1993, the same group had begun secretly manufacturing nerve agents. In 1995 it became notorious for a sarin attack on the Tokyo subway. How does a religious movement come to poison the commuters of a major city? What did its leader teach, and what did his followers do in his name? And what is left of the organization after executions, bans, a split and a new name?

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• 2. A Religion for the Elite

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  In February 1984, Shoko Asahara opened a yoga school in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, and the movement grew out of it. Its earliest teachings borrowed from Nichiren-based sects, including Nichiren Shōshū and Soka Gakkai. In 1989 the group won official status as a religious organization. It also drew a considerable number of graduates from Japan's elite universities, which earned it the label "religion for the elite."

  Two magazines, Vajrayana Sacca and Enjoy Happiness, carried Aum's message in a somewhat missionary tone. The American psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton argued that these publications mixed Christian and Buddhist ideas to win over educated Japanese who found purely traditional sermons dull. Aum's writings also invoked Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. That story follows an elite group of spiritually evolved scientists who go underground in a barbaric age, preparing to rebuild civilization.

  Recruitment ran under a banner called the Aum Salvation plan. It promised to cure physical illness through health techniques. It promised to help people reach their life goals through intelligence and positive thinking. It also urged followers to concentrate on what mattered, even at the expense of leisure. All of this was to come from ancient teachings, said to be translated accurately from the original Pali suttas. Together the three promises were called the "threefold salvation." These efforts made Aum one of the fastest-growing religious groups in Japan's history.

  The authors David E. Kaplan and Andrew Marshall claim that Aum's real practices stayed secret. They report that initiation rituals often involved hallucinogens such as LSD. Ascetic exercises described as yoga ranged from hanging renunciants upside down to administering shock therapy. Early recruits ranged from bureaucrats to personnel of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.

  Even so, Aum was seen as controversial in Japan from the start, though at first nobody tied it to serious crimes.

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• 3. Doctrine of the End

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  During Aum's early years, Asahara became obsessed with Biblical prophecies. Born Chizuo Matsumoto, he said he wanted to restore "original Buddhism," and he used millennialist rhetoric from the beginning. The movement grew steadily more syncretic. It blended his readings of Early Buddhism and Tibetan tantric practice with Hinduism, in which Shiva was at first the main image of worship. It also absorbed Christian millenarian ideas and the writings of Nostradamus. Some observers note that Nichiren Buddhism has long carried a millennialist streak, so Aum's apocalyptic outlook may have Buddhist roots.

  Scholars disagree about how Buddhist the movement really was. Some reject its claims of Buddhist character and ties to Japanese Buddhism. Others call it an offshoot of Japanese Buddhism, which is how the movement saw itself.

  In 1992, Asahara published a foundational book declaring himself Maitreya, Christ and Japan's only fully enlightened master. He also called himself the Lamb of God and Kalki. His stated mission was to take the world's bad karma upon himself, and he claimed this could transfer spiritual power to his followers.

  Asahara also outlined a prophecy of nuclear apocalypse. He blamed a conspiracy of Jewish financiers, Freemasons and war profiteers. He said the United States would lead a Western nuclear attack on Japan in 2000 or 2006, starting a third world war fought with particle beam weapons. Lifton notes that Asahara borrowed the word Armageddon from the Book of Revelation. Asahara predicted that the gathering at Armageddon would come in 1997. Kaplan notes that his lectures called the United States "The Beast" of Revelation. Humanity would perish except for the elite few who joined Aum. The group's mission was therefore to spread salvation and prepare to survive the End Times.

  The scholar Daniel A. Metraux argues that Aum justified violence through its own reading of Buddhist ideas such as Mappō and Shōbō. In this view, bringing about the end of the world would restore Shōbō. Lifton adds that Asahara reinterpreted the Tibetan concept of phowa, which Aum spelled "poa." The claim was that killing a person who opposed the group stopped that person from piling up bad karma and so saved them. Asahara described such a killing, seen through Vajrayana philosophy, as "a noble act of purification." He said a wise observer would see that both the victim and the killer benefited. Only an uneducated observer, he said, would see a murderer.

  The name itself, usually rendered Aum Supreme Truth, joins the Sanskrit syllable Aum, which represents the universe, with the Japanese word Shinrikyo, roughly "Teaching of Truth."

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• 4. Crimes Before 1995

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  Through the late 1980s, accusations piled up against Aum. Critics said it deceived recruits, held members against their will and forced them to donate money. They also said it murdered a member who tried to leave in February 1989.

  In October 1989, talks collapsed between the group and Tsutsumi Sakamoto, an anti-cult lawyer whose threatened lawsuit could have bankrupted it. That month Sakamoto recorded an interview for a talk show on the Japanese station TBS. The network secretly showed the recording to the group without telling him, breaking the protection of sources. Aum then pressured TBS to cancel the broadcast. In the following month, Sakamoto, his wife and their child vanished from their home in Yokohama. Police could not solve the case, though some of his colleagues voiced suspicion of the group. Only after the 1995 Tokyo attack did investigators learn that all three had been murdered and their bodies dumped in separate places.

  The cult is known to have considered assassinating critics, including the heads of the Buddhist groups Soka Gakkai and The Institute for Research in Human Happiness. The manga artist Yoshinori Kobayashi began satirizing the cult and landed on Aum's assassination list. An attempt on his life followed in 1993. In 1991, Aum began wiretapping, using NTT uniforms and equipment and writing a manual on the technique. Kaplan and Marshall also allege extortion, reporting that Aum hospitals commonly took in patients and then forced them to pay exorbitant bills.

  In July 1993, cult members sprayed liquid containing Bacillus anthracis spores from a cooling tower on the roof of the Tokyo headquarters. The plan to start an anthrax epidemic failed, probably because the strain was a vaccine strain generally regarded as nonpathogenic. The only result was a flood of complaints about bad smells. At the end of 1993, the cult began secretly manufacturing sarin and, later, VX. It tested its sarin on sheep at Banjawarn Station, a remote pastoral property in Western Australia, and killed 29 animals.

  In January 1994, a pharmacist at an Aum hospital named Kotaro Ochida tried to escape from a sect compound. He was held down and strangled by another member, who was allegedly told he would be killed too if he refused. On the 21st of June 1995, Asahara acknowledged that he had ordered the killing.

  On the night of the 27th of June 1994, the cult released sarin in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto, Nagano. Members used a converted refrigerator truck, and the cloud drifted near the homes of judges overseeing a real-estate lawsuit that was expected to go against the cult. Eight people died and 500 more were harmed. Police focused on an innocent local resident, Yoshiyuki Kouno, and did not implicate the cult at the time. Aum was identified as the culprit only after the Tokyo subway attack.

  At the end of 1994, the cult broke into the Hiroshima factory of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, hoping to steal technical documents on military weapons such as tanks and artillery. Aum also tried to manufacture 1,000 assault rifles and finished only one. Kenichi Hirose testified at the Tokyo District Court in 2000 that Asahara wanted the group to copy the Soviet Union's main infantry weapon, the AK-74. One rifle was smuggled into Japan to be studied and reverse engineered. Police seized AK-74 components and blueprints from an Aum member's vehicle on the 6th of April 1995.

  In December 1994 and January 1995, the chemist Masami Tsuchiya synthesized 100 to 200 grams of VX, which was used against three people. On the 2nd of December, Noboru Mizuno, who was believed to have helped former Aum members, was attacked with syringes of VX and left in serious condition. Tadahito Hamaguchi, whom Asahara suspected of being a spy, was attacked on a street in Osaka at 7:00 a.m. on the 12th of December 1994. Tomomitsu Niimi and another member sprinkled the nerve agent on his neck. Hamaguchi chased them for about 100 yards before collapsing, and he died 10 days later without leaving a deep coma. Doctors suspected an organophosphate pesticide, and the true cause was pinned down only after members arrested in March 1995 confessed. Unlike sarin, VX was not used for mass murder.

  On the 4th of January 1995, the cult tried to kill Hiroyuki Nagaoka in the same way. Nagaoka was an important member of the Aum Victims' Society, a civil group protesting the sect's activities. In February 1995, cult members kidnapped Kiyoshi Kariya, the 69-year-old brother of an escaped former member, from a Tokyo street. They took him to a compound in Kamikuishiki, near Mount Fuji, where he was killed. His body was destroyed in a microwave-powered incinerator and the remnants were dumped in Lake Kawaguchi. Before the abduction he had received threatening calls demanding his sister's whereabouts, and he left a note: "If I disappear, I was abducted by Aum Shinrikyo."

  By March 1995, police were planning simultaneous raids on cult facilities across Japan.

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• 5. The Subway Attack

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  On the morning of the 20th of March 1995, Aum members released a binary chemical weapon, chemically closest to sarin, on five trains of the Tokyo subway. Thirteen commuters died, 54 were seriously injured and 980 more were affected. Some estimates claim that as many as 6,000 people were hurt. Exact numbers are hard to establish because many victims are reluctant to come forward.

  Prosecutors allege that an insider tipped off Asahara about the planned raids. They say he ordered an attack in central Tokyo to draw police attention away from the group. The plan evidently backfired. Police carried out huge simultaneous raids on cult compounds across the country.

  Over the following week, the full scale of Aum's activities became visible for the first time. At the headquarters in Kamikuishiki, on the foot of Mount Fuji, police found explosives, chemical weapons and a Russian Mi-17-1V military helicopter. Reports of biological agents such as anthrax and Ebola cultures now appear widely exaggerated. The chemical stockpiles, however, could have produced enough sarin to kill four million people. Police also found laboratories for LSD, methamphetamine and a crude truth serum. A safe held millions of U.S. dollars in cash and gold, and cells, many still holding prisoners, were discovered. Aum announced that the chemicals were meant for fertilizer. Over six weeks, more than 150 cult members were arrested. The media camped for months outside Aum's Tokyo headquarters on Komazawa Dori in Aoyama, waiting for any sign of action.

  On the 30th of March 1995, Takaji Kunimatsu, chief of the National Police Agency, was shot four times near his house in Tokyo and seriously wounded. Many suspected Aum, and the Sankei Shimbun reported that Hiroshi Nakamura was suspected. Nobody was charged, though Nakamura would later confess.

  On the 23rd of April 1995, Hideo Murai, head of Aum's Ministry of Science, was stabbed to death outside the Tokyo headquarters. About 100 reporters were present, and cameras recorded it. The killer, a Korean member of Yamaguchi-gumi, was arrested and convicted, and his motive remains unknown. On the evening of the 5th of May, a burning paper bag turned up in a toilet in Tokyo's busy Shinjuku station. It was a hydrogen cyanide device that, if left burning, could have sent enough gas through the ventilation system to potentially kill 10,000 commuters. On the 4th of July, several undetonated cyanide devices were found elsewhere in the Tokyo subway.

  In June, an individual unrelated to Aum hijacked All Nippon Airways Flight 857, a Boeing 747 flying from Tokyo to Hakodate. The hijacker claimed to be an Aum member carrying sarin and plastic explosives, but those claims proved false.

  On the 16th of May, police finally found Asahara hiding within a wall of a building called "The 6th Satian" in the Kamikuishiki complex, and he was arrested. The same day, the cult mailed a parcel bomb to the office of Tokyo governor Yukio Aoshima, and it blew the fingers off his secretary's hand.

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• 6. Trial and Executions

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  Prosecutors initially charged Asahara with 23 counts of murder and 16 other offenses. The press dubbed the proceedings "the trial of the century." The court found him guilty of masterminding the subway attack and sentenced him to death. His appeal failed. Several senior members accused of taking part, such as Masami Tsuchiya, also received death sentences.

  Why a small circle of mostly senior members committed these atrocities, and how deeply Asahara was involved, remain unclear. Prosecutors argued that he gave the order. The defense countered that he knew nothing of the events and pointed to his deteriorating health. The group itself says the perpetrators acted in secret, without the knowledge of other executives and ordinary believers. Shortly after his arrest, Asahara gave up his post as leader. He then fell silent, refusing to communicate even with lawyers and family.

  On the 15th of September 2006, Asahara lost his final appeal against the death penalty. The next day, Japanese police raided Aleph offices to head off any illegal activity in response. Thirteen cult members were eventually sentenced to death.

  For over 15 years, only three fugitives were being actively sought. At 11:50 p.m. on the 31st of December 2011, Makoto Hirata surrendered to police. He was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the 1995 abduction of Kiyoshi Kariya. On the 3rd of June 2012, police captured Naoko Kikuchi on a tip from local residents. Her capture, along with recent photographs showing a modified appearance, led to the last fugitive. On the 15th of June 2012, Katsuya Takahashi was caught in Tokyo after 17 years on the run. He is said to have been the driver in the Tokyo gas attack.

  On the 6th of July 2018, Asahara and six others were executed by hanging. The seven included Yoshihiro Inoue, Aum's head of intelligence and chief coordinator of the subway attack. Tomomitsu Niimi, a getaway driver, was among them. So were Tomomasa Nakagawa, a perpetrator of the Sakamoto family murder, and Kiyohide Hayakawa, Aum's construction minister. The chief scientist Seiichi Endo and the chief chemist Masami Tsuchiya, who directed sarin manufacture, were executed the same day. Japan's Justice Minister Yōko Kamikawa said the crimes "plunged people, not only in Japan but in other countries as well, into deadly fear and shook society to its core." Amnesty International criticized the use of the death penalty in the case. Executions are rare in Japan, but surveys show they have public support. Thirteen members were on death row at the time, and the six remaining were executed on the 26th of July 2018.

  Asahara's will called for his youngest daughter to collect his ashes. She urged relatives and cult members to "put an end to the Aum and stop hating society." The ashes stayed at the detention center for fear of reprisals from other elements of the cult. In 2020, the Tokyo Family Court ruled that the second daughter, who had visited him repeatedly in custody, should receive his hair and remains. On the 2nd of July 2021, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the fourth daughter. In 2024, the Tokyo District Court ordered the government to hand the remains to the second daughter.

  At 12:10 AM on New Year's Day 2019, a car was deliberately driven into crowds celebrating on Takeshita Street in Tokyo. At least nine people were injured, one seriously. Police arrested the suspected driver, Kazuhiro Kusakabe, who allegedly admitted ramming the crowd to protest the death penalty. He reportedly framed it as retaliation for the executions of the Aum members. Whether he meant those executions directly or made a broader statement is still unclear.

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• 7. Aleph and the Split

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  On the 10th of October 1995, Aum was ordered stripped of its status as a religious legal entity, and it was declared bankrupt in early 1996. The group nonetheless kept operating under the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion. It was funded by a successful computer business and donations, and it lived under strict surveillance. In January 1997, the Public Security Examination Commission rejected attempts to ban it outright under the 1952 Subversive Activities Prevention Law.

  The group went through several transformations after Asahara's arrest. For a brief time, his two preteen sons officially replaced him as guru. In 1999, Fumihiro Joyu, one of the few senior leaders without serious charges, became the official head. Kōki Ishii, a legislator who formed an anti-Aum committee in the National Diet in 1999, was murdered in 2002.

  In early 2000, the organization re-formed under the name Aleph, after the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and replaced its logo. It announced a change in doctrine, removing religious texts tied to controversial Vajrayana Buddhist teachings, along with the Bible. The group apologized to the victims of the sarin attack and set up a special compensation fund. It stopped issuing provocative publications and activities that alarmed society.

  A June 2005 report by the National Police Agency counted about 1,650 Aleph members, 650 of whom lived communally in compounds. The group ran 26 facilities in 17 prefectures and about 120 residential facilities. A Mainichi Shimbun article of the 11th of September 2002 showed that the public still distrusted Aleph. Its compounds were usually ringed with protest banners from local residents.

  On the 8th of March 2007, Fumihiro Joyu, a former Aum spokesman who had headed its Moscow operation, formally announced a long-expected split. His group, Hikari no Wa, meaning "The Circle of Light," said it was committed to uniting science and religion and creating "the new science of the human mind." It had earlier aimed to move away from the criminal past and toward its spiritual roots.

  In April 2011, the Public Security Intelligence Agency stated that Aum had about 1,500 members. In July 2011, the group itself reported 1,030. It was reportedly working to recruit through social media and by proselytizing on college campuses.

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• 8. Surveillance and Legacy

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  In January 2000, the group was placed under surveillance for three years under an anti-Aum law. It had to submit a list of members and details of its assets to the authorities. In the same year, a Russian member was arrested for plotting a bombing as part of a plan to rescue Asahara from custody. Dmitry Sigachev led the plan and was arrested at Primorsky Krai. In 2001, Russian Aum members reportedly planned to attack the Tokyo Imperial Palace with explosives for the same purpose.

  In January 2003, the Public Security Intelligence Agency won permission to extend surveillance for another three years. It had found evidence that the group still revered Asahara. A report from the Religious News Blog in April 2004 said the authorities still considered the group "a threat to society."

  Sometime after April 2013, the agency photographed the inside of an Aleph facility. The picture shows a bundle of papers pierced with a knife on an altar-like object. The papers included photographs of agency employees and directors, police officers, and the lawyer Taro Takimoto, who helped followers leave Aum Shinrikyo. Portraits of Asahara were still displayed there, and videos of him were used to demand dependence from followers.

  In 2014, The Japan Times alleged that Aleph's "good looks and commitment to a cause" were inspiring a new generation of admirers. Dissatisfaction with society and low degrees of success in life led these young people to identify with the cult. They adored the cultists as if they were pop idols.

  In March 2016, Montenegro expelled 58 foreigners suspected of ties to Aum Shinrikyo. Four were from Japan, 43 from Russia, seven from Belarus, three from Ukraine and one from Uzbekistan. On the 5th of April 2016, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case against followers. Its investigators and the Federal Security Service raided sites in Moscow and Saint Petersburg to seize literature, religious items and electronic information. On the 20th of September 2016, the Russian government banned the group and declared it a terrorist organization.

  In January 2015, Japan's agency had announced that Aleph and Hikari no Wa would stay under surveillance for three more years, calling them branches of a "dangerous religion." In 2017, the Tokyo District Court canceled the extension for Hikari no Wa after the group challenged it legally, but it kept Aleph under watch. The government appealed. In February 2019, the Tokyo High Court overturned the cancellation and reinstated surveillance, citing no major changes between Aum Shinrikyo and Hikari no Wa. In November 2017, Japanese police raided five Aleph offices in an investigation of recruiting practices, after a woman paid tens of thousands of yen for study sessions.

  Several countries have formally designated the group a terrorist organization, including Russia, Canada, Japan, France, Kazakhstan and the European Union. The United States did so too, until 2022, when the State Department determined that the group was largely defunct.

  The story has also been told in books and films. Haruki Murakami's Underground interviewed victims of the Tokyo attack. The 1998 Japanese documentary A, directed by Tatsuya Mori, follows Hiroshi Araki, a troubled 28-year-old spokesman who had cut all family ties and rejected materialism. Its sequel A2, released in 2001, returned to Araki and examined the competing factions of the sect during Asahara's trial. In 2023, Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto released AUM: The Cult at the End of the World, a documentary based on the book by Kaplan and Marshall.

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