Â鶹´«Ã½

Tag - shoko-asahara

 
Â鶹´«Ã½
Search
 
August 14, 2026
 

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

SHOKO ASAHARA

The apartment one of a son of Chizuo Matsumoto in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture. Matsumoto was the former leader of the now-defunct Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult. His son recently filed a lawsuit against the government and is seeking damages for an attempted inspection of his apartment.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 5, 2026
Ex-Aum leader¡¯s son seeks damages from government
This is the first time that details of his remarks and behavior related to the agency¡¯s inspection attempt have come to light.
Followers of doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo work in front of a computer screen showing a picture of group leader Shoko Asahara at Aum's key Adachi office in Tokyo in 1999.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 4, 2025
Japan to keep restricting Aum Shinrikyo successor group¡¯s activities
The Public Security Examination Commission extended the restrictions on Aleph, a successor group of the now-defunct doomsday cult, until March 20, 2026.
The home of Chizuo Matsumoto's second son in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, in July. The place was recognized by the Public Security Intelligence Agency as a facility of Aleph, Aum Shinrikyo's successor organization.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 4, 2025
Matsumoto¡¯s second son officially recognized as Aleph leader
The name of the 31-year-old son was included in an agency request for administrative action against Aleph.
Followers of doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo chant in religious training before a portrait of guru Shoko Asahara in 1999 at Aum's Adachi Ward office in Tokyo, where extensive facilities are located.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2025
Son of executed Aum Shinrikyo founder identified as Aleph leader
The unnamed 31-year-old son of Chizuo Matsumoto has been ¡°involved in organizational decision-making and is leading Aleph¡¯s operations.¡±
The house of the wife of the late Chizuo Matsumoto, the now-defunct Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult's founder, in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, in July
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 16, 2025
Tens of millions of yen found at home of Aum Shinrikyo founder¡¯s wife
Chizuo Matsumoto was executed in 2018 over a series of incidents involving the cult, including the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo¡¯s subway system.
Some of the photos related to Aum Shinrikyo, taken by Seiichi Takeuchi, are displayed at an educational facility in Fujikawaguchiko in Yamanashi Prefecture.
JAPAN
May 18, 2025
1,400 photos donated to remember horrors of Aum Shinrikyo cult
Kamikuishiki resident Seiichi Takeuchi, 97, waged a battle against the group from the time the cult set up the base in the village¡¯s Fujigane district in 1989.
An altar at the Aleph facility in Tokyo¡¯s Adachi Ward featuring a photo of Shoko Asahara, the founder of Aum Shinrikyo and the alleged mastermind of the March 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2025
Thirty years later, Aum Shinrikyo¡¯s horrors are ever-present
Subsequent revelations about the cult proved even more alarming than the 1995 assault. It became clear that the authorities had been worried about the group for some time.
Shizue Takahashi offers flowers and pays tribute to the victims of the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult during a memorial service at Kasumigaseki Station on Thursday. Her husband, Kazumasa, who was working as an assistant stationmaster at Kasumigaseki Station, was killed in the attack.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2025
Tokyo subway sarin gas attack remembered 30 years on
Many survivors of the attack by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult still suffer from physical aftereffects and post-traumatic stress disorder.
A monument stands in Fujigane Park at the former site of an Aum Shinrikyo facility in Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 19, 2025
Former member of Aum Shinrikyo expresses regret 30 years on
The 59-year-old man who has served time in prison admitted to following the doomsday cult¡¯s leader despite thinking it wasn¡¯t right.
Public Security Intelligence Agency officers enter the headquarters of Hikari no Wa, one of the three successor groups to Aum Shinrikyo, in Tokyo in July 2019.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 19, 2025
Aum Shinrikyo successor groups still dangerous, justice minister says
The minister also expressed concern about the groups¡¯ activities in recent years to recruit young people with little knowledge of the deadly attack.
Tetsu Okumura, former emergency room physician at St. Luke's International Hospital, talks about how he treated the victims of the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system 30 years ago, during an interview last week.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2025
Former ER doctor recalls fear treating victims in 1995 Tokyo sarin attack
At around 8 a.m. on March 20, 1995, cult members released sarin in train cars on three subway lines in Tokyo during the morning rush hour.
Emergency medical workers treat victims of the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system at a makeshift shelter before they are transported to hospitals on March 20, 1995.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2025
Japan to preserve medical records from 1995 sarin attack
The health ministry will also interview medical professionals who treated the victims and compile oral records.
Yuki Niimi, the widow of Tomomitsu Niimi, who was executed in 2018 along with other former members of the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo for their roles in the 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system, poses with a photo of her husband (front) with cult leader Shoko Asahara, in Osaka in February.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2025
¡®Until the very end, he gave no apology¡¯: Widow of Aum killer speaks out
Tomomitsu Niimi was behind bars when he met Yuki Niimi, and when they married in 2011.
Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by Aum Shinrikyo, the Public Security Intelligence Agency launched a special website Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2025
Special website created 30 years after Tokyo subway sarin attack
The Aum Shinrikyo digital archive covers not only the Tokyo subway system attack, but also other crimes by the cult, including a 1994 sarin gas attack in Matsumoto.
An altar is decorated with a portrait of Aum Shinrikyo founder Chizuo Matsumoto at an Aleph facility in Tokyo this month.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Jun 27, 2024
Japan authorities remain on alert over Aum successor group
Aleph, which has most of the roughly 1,650 worshippers of Aum Shinrikyo¡¯s three successor groups, continues to worship the teachings of cult leader Chizuo Matsumoto.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 2, 2023
Chiba Prefecture woman arrested over Twitter threat to release sarin
Miyuki Yamamoto, who ran unsuccessfully for the Funabashi Municipal Assembly last month, was arrested on suspicion of obstructing business with fraudulent information.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 25, 2020
25 years after Tokyo subway attack, Aum is a shadow of its former self
Doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo¡¯s sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway trains shocked Japan and the world, raising concerns over nonstate organizations obtaining weapons of mass destruction.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2019
One year on, Aum founder¡¯s ashes still in detention house
A year after Chizuo Matsumoto, who headed the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, was hanged, his ashes remain at the Tokyo Detention House due to a family dispute.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 6, 2019
New era offers Japan an opportunity to reassess the future
What¡¯s in a name? What¡¯s in an era? What is an ¡°era¡°? What¡¯s a ¡°new era¡°? Are we entering one?
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 19, 2018
Ex-Aum cultist Makoto Hirata has ¡®no special feelings¡¯ about Shoko Asahara¡¯s execution
Makoto Hirata, a former Aum Shinrikyo executive, says he has ¡°no special feelings¡± about the execution last month of Shoko Asahara, the founder of the now-defunct doomsday cult.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
New ¡®Katsu Curry Index¡¯ aims to show how weak the yen really is
A CoCo Ichibanya curry house in Tokyo.
Mexican man arrested over attempt to smuggle some 200 lizards into Japan
Mexican alligator lizards seized by Tokyo Customs from a Mexican man who attempted to smuggle them into Japan on Saturday through Haneda Airport
Gut bacteria may be behind many of Â鶹´«Ã½ colorectal cancer cases
A Japanese research team found that a toxin produced by certain E. coli strains, colibactin, caused genetic mutations in nearly half of colorectal cancer cases studied
She is Russia¡¯s richest woman. Her business empire is going up in flames.
Tatyana Kim, the head and co-founder of Wildberries, speaks about Ukrainian drone attacks on the company's warehouses in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at an unidentified location, in this still image from a handout video released on July 31.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
Ikarigata closer to emulating older brother Fujinokawa than many think
The future Fujinokawa (third from left) and Ikarigata (right) compete against each other at ages 5 and 3, respectively.
Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?
The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that allows burials, albeit with conditions for the deceased, including foreign nationality and permanent residency in Kanagawa Prefecture.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
As Â鶹´«Ã½ concrete jungles sizzle, urban forestry offers an all-natural fix
People and birds find relief from the sun in Tokyo's Nakano Ward earlier this month. While experts agree that urban greening is crucial to mitigating the impact of climate change, trees are becoming even more scarce in Japanese cities.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER