Shoko Asahara, born Chizuo Matsumoto, was the founder and leader of the Japanese doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted of masterminding the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and was also involved in several other crimes. Asahara was sentenced to death in 2004, and his final appeal failed in 2011. In June 2012, his execution was postponed due to further arrests of Aum members. He was ultimately executed along with other senior members of Aum Shinrikyo on July 6, 2018.
Shibuya is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. A major commercial and finance center, Shibuya houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station and Shibuya Station.
Harajuku is a district in Shibuya, Tokyo. Harajuku is the common name given to a geographic area spreading from Harajuku Station to Omotesando, corresponding on official maps of Shibuya ward as Jingūmae 1 chōme to 4 chōme. In popular reference, Harajuku also encompasses many smaller backstreets such as Takeshita Street and Cat Street spreading from Sendagaya in the north to Shibuya in the south.
The Tokyo subway sarin attack was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated on 20 March 1995, in Tokyo, Japan, by members of the cult movement Aum Shinrikyo. In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on three lines of the Tokyo Metro during rush hour, killing 13 people, severely injuring 50, and causing temporary vision problems for nearly 1,000 others. The attack was directed against trains passing through Kasumigaseki and Nagatachō, where the National Diet is headquartered in Tokyo.
The Matsumoto sarin attack was an attempted assassination perpetrated by members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Japan on the night of June 27, 1994. Eight people were killed and over 500 were harmed by sarin aerosol that was released from a converted refrigerator truck in the Kaichi Heights area. The attack was perpetrated nine months before the better-known Tokyo subway sarin attack.
On November 5, 1989, Tsutsumi Sakamoto, a lawyer working on a class action lawsuit against Aum Shinrikyo, a doomsday cult in Japan, was murdered, along with his wife Satoko and his child Tatsuhiko, by perpetrators who broke into his apartment. Six years later, following the 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway, the murderers were uncovered and it was established that the murderers had been members of Aum Shinrikyo at the time of the crime.
The Tōgō Shrine was established in 1940 and dedicated to Gensui the Marquis Tōgō Heihachirō after his death. This shrine was destroyed by the Bombing of Tokyo, but was rebuilt in 1964. It is located in Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan.
Omotesandō (表参道) is a zelkova tree-lined avenue located in Shibuya and Minato, Tokyo, stretching from the Meiji Shrine entrance to Aoyama-dōri, where Omotesandō Station can be found.
Yoshiyuki Kōno is a survivor of the Matsumoto incident, a sarin attack that killed eight people and sickened many more in Matsumoto, Japan, on the evening of June 27, 1994 and the following morning.
Tomomitsu Niimi was an Aum Shinrikyo member convicted for his participation in the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway and a number of other crimes. He was Aum's "minister of internal affairs".
Kasumigaseki Station is a subway station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, operated by the Tokyo subway operator Tokyo Metro. The station is located in the Kasumigaseki government district.
The Public Security Intelligence Agency is the domestic intelligence agency of Japan. It is administered by the Ministry of Justice and is tasked with internal security and espionage against threats to Japanese national security based on the Subversive Activities Prevention Act and the Act Regarding the Control of Organizations Which Committed Indiscriminate Mass Murder. Any investigation conducted by the agency needs to go through the Public Security Examination Commission (PSEC) in order to determine if there is a justification to investigate and clamp down on an organization's activities.
The Public Security Bureau is a bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD) in charge of public security with jurisdiction over the Tokyo metropolis. It has a force of more than 2,000 officers. The bureau reports to the Deputy Superintendent General.
Hikari no Wa or The Circle of Rainbow Light is a Japanese new religious movement started in 2007. It was founded by Fumihiro Joyu, the previous spokesperson and public relations manager of the Japanese Buddhist new religious group and doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, together with Manon Larue and his son Antoine Larue. Hikari no Wa's stated goal is not to influence a particular faith, but instead to help people find a new way to think about religion in their daily lives.
Aleph, better known by their former name Aum Shinrikyo, is a Japanese new religious movement and doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been responsible for the Matsumoto sarin attack the previous year.
A vehicle-ramming attack, also known as a vehicle as a weapon or VAW attack, is an assault in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a vehicle into a building, people, or another vehicle. According to Stratfor Global Intelligence analysts, this attack represents a relatively new militant tactic that could prove more difficult to prevent than suicide bombings.
Kiyohide Hayakawa was a member and deputy leader of the Japanese doomsday-cult group Aum Shinrikyo. Hayakawa was born in Hyōgo Prefecture in 1949. After Aum Shinrikyo adopted a "ministry system", he was the Minister of Construction. Hayakawa was the person behind the organization's uranium mining at Banjawarn in Australia.
Masami Tsuchiya was a senior member of Aum Shinrikyo, responsible for the deaths of a combined 19 people and for the production of sarin, VX nerve agent, PCP and LSD. He is also notable for not showing remorse at the trials and remaining loyal to cult leader Shoko Asahara. He was member of the Ministry of Health of the cult, with prosecutors calling him "the second most important figure involved in the gas attacks by the Aum Shinrikyo cult, after cult leader Shoko Asahara himself."
Kazuaki Okazaki was a Japanese convicted multiple murderer and former member of the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo who co-perpetrated the Sakamoto family murder and another murder in 1989. Immediately after the Sakamoto murders, he abandoned the cult and turned himself in to the police after the Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995. He was tried and was sentenced to death for those crimes, for which he pleaded clemency. The petition was repeatedly dismissed by the courts and he was executed in July 2018.
