# Aum Shinrikyo · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

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The Cult Dossier · No. 068 · Apocalyptic / Doomsday
Aum Shinrikyo
Supreme Truth; later Aleph and Hikari no Wa
1984 – present (as successors, under surveillance) · Japan — Tokyo, Kamikuishiki at the foot of Mount Fuji; also Russia and Australia
VII. THE 1980s — SIEGE AND SCANDAL
Fully religious — syncretic Buddhist-Hindu apocalyptic sect
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1984 Founded as Aum Shinsen no Kai, a yoga school.
- August 1989 Granted religious corporation status in Tokyo, which gave it tax advantages and near-immunity from police scrutiny.
- 4 NOVEMBER 1989 MURDER OF THE SAKAMOTO FAMILY. Tsutsumi Sakamoto, a lawyer organising parents of Aum members, is killed along with his wife and baby son at their home in Yokohama; the bodies are buried in three separate prefectures. The case goes unsolved for six years while police fail to pursue Aum.
- February 1990 Aum runs 25 candidates for the Diet; all lose humiliatingly. Asahara reportedly concludes that society must be destroyed rather than converted.
- 1990–1994 Attempts at biological weapons: botulinum toxin sprayed from a truck around the Diet, and anthrax released from a Tokyo building rooftop in June 1993 — both fail, the anthrax strain used being a harmless veterinary vaccine strain.
- 27 JUNE 1994 MATSUMOTO SARIN ATTACK. Sarin released from a converted refrigerator truck in a residential area of Matsumoto, targeting judges hearing a land case against Aum. SEVEN DIE AT THE TIME and an eighth victim dies fourteen years later; around 500 are injured. An innocent local man, Yoshiyuki Kono, is publicly accused by police and press for months.
- 20 MARCH 1995 TOKYO SUBWAY SARIN ATTACK. At 08:00, five two-man teams board trains on the Chiyoda, Marunouchi and Hibiya lines converging on Kasumigaseki, the government district. Each punctures plastic bags of liquid sarin with a sharpened umbrella tip and leaves. 13 KILLED. THE INJURY FIGURE NEEDS CARE: 5,510 PEOPLE WERE TREATED ACROSS 278 HOSPITALS, but medical studies of the response found ABOUT 85 PER CENT WERE 'WORRIED WELL' — people who feared exposure rather than sustained it; 17 were critical and 37 severe. THE NUMBER ACTUALLY POISONED BY SARIN WAS OVER A THOUSAND. The widely quoted 5,500–6,000 figure counts everyone who presented at a hospital, not everyone who was gassed. Those genuinely exposed included many with lasting neurological damage. Station attendants who cleared the liquid with their bare hands died.
- 22 March 1995 Massive raids on Aum facilities; police find chemical plants capable of producing enough sarin to kill millions, along with LSD labs, an anthrax culture room, Russian weapons and a helicopter.
- 16 May 1995 Asahara found hidden in a concealed room at the Kamikuishiki compound.
- 24 February 2004 Asahara sentenced to death; appeals exhausted 2006.
- 6 and 26 JULY 2018 Asahara and 12 senior members EXECUTED by hanging.
- 2018–2026 THE COMPENSATION HAS NEVER BEEN PAID. A court ordered Aum and its successor Aleph to pay MORE THAN ONE BILLION YEN to survivors and bereaved families. THE GROUP HAS SIMPLY REFUSED. Roughly 1,600 former members continue to operate under renamed organisations and have ignored the damages order outright.
- 20 MARCH 2025 THE THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY. Memorials are held across Tokyo; the Public Security Intelligence Agency launches a dedicated website on the attack. Officials state publicly that the successor groups remain an ONGOING PROBLEM, and survivors warn that the movement is still active. Survivors and bereaved families describe themselves as still seeking closure, and many remain traumatised and untreated three decades on.
### Its people
### Shoko Asahara
Chizuo Matsumoto
Founder, Aum Shinrikyo · 2 March 1955 – 6 July 2018 · active 1984–1995
Before the law. CONVICTED of 13 counts including multiple murder; sentenced to death 24 February 2004; appeals exhausted 2006. Executed with 12 senior members in July 2018.
Where things stand. Executed 2018. Successor groups Aleph and Hikari no Wa remain under permanent Japanese state surveillance.
- 1984 Founds Aum Shinsen no Kai.
- August 1989 Granted religious corporation status.
- 4 November 1989 Orders the murder of the lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife and their 14-month-old son.
- February 1990 All 25 Aum election candidates lose.
- 27 June 1994 Matsumoto sarin attack — seven killed at the time, an eighth fourteen years later, about 500 injured.
- 20 MARCH 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack — 13 killed, a toll later given as 14; 5,510 people treated, most of them not actually poisoned.
- 16 May 1995 Found hiding in a concealed room at the Kamikuishiki compound.
- 6 JULY 2018 Executed by hanging.
Checked 2026-09-26
### Hideo Murai
Minister of Science and Technology
Head of Aum's weapons programme · 5 December 1958 – 24 April 1995 · active 1987–1995
Before the law. Murdered before he could be tried. His killer, Hiroyuki Jo, served a sentence for the killing.
Where things stand. Deceased 1995. His death removed the single best witness to Aum's weapons programme.
- 1987 Joins Aum, abandoning a research career.
- 1993–95 Directs the Satian 7 sarin plant and the biological weapons work.
- 20 March 1995 The Tokyo subway attack.
- 24 APRIL 1995 Stabbed to death on camera outside Aum's Tokyo headquarters before he could be fully interrogated.
Checked
### Seiichi Endo
Minister of Health and Welfare
Head of Aum's biological weapons programme · 5 June 1960 – 6 July 2018 · active 1987–1995
Before the law. CONVICTED of murder; sentenced to death 1998; executed 2018.
Where things stand. EXECUTED BY HANGING ON 6 JULY 2018 AT THE TOKYO DETENTION HOUSE, aged 58, with SHOKO ASAHARA and five other members; six more were hanged on 26 July. RE-CHECKED 2026-09-07. He produced the sarin on Asahara's instruction. THIS IS A DOCUMENTARY CLAIM AND IT WILL NOT CHANGE — the audit's own measurement was that judgments and executions do not decay, which is why this file is stamped once and left alone.
- 1987 Joins Aum from Kyoto University.
- 1990–93 Botulinum and anthrax attempts, all unsuccessful.
- 1994–95 Assists sarin production for Matsumoto and the subway attack.
- 1995 Arrested.
- 1998 Sentenced to death.
- 6 JULY 2018 Executed by hanging.
Checked 2026-09-07
### Masami Tsuchiya
—
Chief chemist, Aum Shinrikyo · 1965 – 6 July 2018 · active 1989–1995
Before the law. CONVICTED of murder; sentenced to death; executed 2018.
Where things stand. Executed 2018.
- 1989 Joins Aum, abandoning doctoral work.
- 1993–95 Synthesises sarin and VX at Satian 7.
- 27 June 1994 Matsumoto attack — 8 killed.
- 20 March 1995 Tokyo subway attack — 13 killed, ~5,800 injured.
- 6 JULY 2018 Executed by hanging.
Checked
### Kiyohide Hayakawa
Minister of Construction
Procurement chief, Aum Shinrikyo · 1949 – 6 July 2018 · active 1986–1995
Before the law. CONVICTED of murder including the Sakamoto family killings; executed 2018.
Where things stand. Executed 2018.
- 1986 Joins Aum.
- 4 November 1989 Directs the murder of the Sakamoto family.
- 1992–94 Repeated trips to Russia; acquires an Mi-17 helicopter and pursues weapons technology.
- 1995 Arrested; his notebooks become key evidence.
- 6 JULY 2018 Executed by hanging.
Checked
### Fumihiro Joyu
—
Spokesman, Aum Shinrikyo; founder, Hikari no Wa · born 17 December 1962 · active 1986–present
Before the law. CONVICTED of perjury and document falsification, not of the attacks. Served three years.
Where things stand. Living, and still leading HIKARI NO WA, which he founded in 2007 as a splinter EXPLICITLY REJECTING ASAHARA’S INFLUENCE. A CORRECTION ON THE SURVEILLANCE: this file said the group was under PERMANENT state surveillance. IT WAS NOT CONTINUOUS. Monitoring was DISCONTINUED IN 2017 after a successful legal challenge, and RESTORED ON 28 FEBRUARY 2019 when the TOKYO HIGH COURT allowed a further extension, reversing that decision. The PUBLIC SECURITY INTELLIGENCE AGENCY keeps the group under general monitoring as an Aum successor entity, citing continued reverence for Asahara — his image displayed in its facilities, seminars built on his doctrines. IN MARCH 2025 JUSTICE MINISTER KEISUKE SUZUKI NAMED HIKARI NO WA, ALONGSIDE ALEPH AND YAMADA-RA NO SHUDAN, AS OPERATING UNDER ASAHARA’S ‘ABSOLUTE INFLUENCE’, warning of risks of indiscriminate mass murder and of covert recruitment of young people who are not told what they are joining. Note the shape of that: Joyu founded the group to escape Asahara, and the Japanese state says it is still his.
- 1986 Joins Aum from the national space agency.
- 1995 Becomes the group's televised public face.
- 1995 Convicted of perjury and falsifying documents; serves three years.
- 1999–2007 Leads the successor group Aleph.
- 2007 Splits off to found Hikari no Wa, publicly renouncing Asahara.
Checked 2026-08-24 · living: health details are kept at home
### The Sakamoto family
Tsutsumi, Satoko and Tatsuhiko Sakamoto
Murdered by Aum Shinrikyo · killed 4 November 1989 · active 1989
Before the law. Several Aum members, including Kiyohide Hayakawa, were convicted and executed for these killings in 2018.
Where things stand. All three deceased 1989. Their deaths are the clearest 'what if' in the entire dossier.
- 1989 Tsutsumi Sakamoto organises families of Aum members and prepares litigation.
- October 1989 A television company shows Aum an unbroadcast interview with him.
- 4 NOVEMBER 1989 All three are killed at their home in Yokohama; the bodies are buried in three separate prefectures.
- 1989–95 The case remains unsolved; police do not pursue Aum.
- 1995 After the subway attack, Aum members confess and the bodies are recovered.
Checked
### Kazumasa Takahashi
—
Tokyo subway station attendant killed in the sarin attack · 1944 – 20 March 1995 · active 1995
Before the law. His killers were convicted and executed in July 2018.
Where things stand. Deceased 1995, aged 50. His widow Shizue Takahashi became a prominent advocate for victims of the attack and campaigned for state compensation.
- 20 MARCH 1995 Clears liquid sarin from a train floor at Kasumigaseki station with newspaper and bare hands. Collapses on the platform.
- 20 March 1995 Dies. His colleague Tsuneo Hishinuma dies two days later.
Checked
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