Shoko Asahara

A man named Shoko Asahara led a group.

He started a group called Aum Shinrikyo. Many people joined his group. They studied yoga and meditation.

But the group did bad things. They hurt many people. They used a harmful gas in a city. They also hurt people on a train.

These things were very sad. The leader was sent to jail. He died a long time ago. We remember the people who were hurt.

Shoko Asahara was a man from Japan. He was born in 1955. He had trouble with his sight from birth. He later started a group called Aum Shinrikyo.

This group began as a yoga and meditation class. It grew very large. Many smart people from top schools joined.

Asahara told his followers many things. He said he had reached a special state of mind. He claimed he had a mission to preach. But the group did very bad things. They hurt many people to get what they wanted. They used harmful chemicals to attack others.

In 1994, the group used a gas called sarin. They used a truck to spread it in a city. This attack hurt many people. In 1995, they also used the gas on a subway in Tokyo. These acts caused much harm and death. The leaders of the group were caught. Asahara was sentenced to death. He died in 2018. We remember the many people who were hurt by these events.

Shoko Asahara was a Japanese cult leader. He founded a group known as Aum Shinrikyo. This group was very different from many other religions. It started as a small yoga and meditation class in 1987. Asahara ran the class from a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Tokyo. Over time, the group grew into a large organization. It even became an official religious group in 1989. Many graduates from Japan's best universities joined the group. People called it a "religion for the elite."

Asahara had a very different life before starting his group. He was born Chizuo Matsumoto in 1955 in Kumamoto Prefecture. His family made tatami mats and was quite poor. He had a medical condition called glaucoma from birth. This meant he could not see well with his eyes. He went to a school for the blind when he was six. Later, he studied Chinese medicine and opened a shop. He also studied many different religious ideas like yoga and Buddhism. He eventually took the name Shoko Asahara. ]

As the leader, Asahara made many big claims to his followers. He said he had reached a state called enlightenment. He claimed he met a god named Shiva. He told people he had a special mission to preach. The group used many ways to find new members. They even made comics and cartoons to attract people. These stories used themes like space and secret weapons. Some people joined because they wanted to improve their intelligence. Others joined to help cure their physical illnesses.

However, the group became known for doing very harmful things. They were accused of hurting people who disagreed with them. In 1989, members of the group killed a lawyer named Tsutsumi Sakamoto. They also killed his wife and their small baby. The group also used very hard practices on its members. Some members were even held against their will. Authors have said the group used drugs to control people. They also used high medical bills to take money from patients. These actions caused a lot of trouble in Japan.

In 1994, the group carried out a major chemical attack. They used a gas called sarin in the city of Matsumoto. They used a special truck to spread the gas. This attack killed several people and hurt many others. In 1995, they used the same gas on the Tokyo subway. These violent acts led to the arrest of the leaders. Asahara was sentenced to death in 2004. He was finally executed on July 6, 2018. These events changed how people thought about religious groups in Japan.

Shoko Asahara was a Japanese cult leader and terrorist. He founded and led a doomsday cult called Aum Shinrikyo. This group became infamous for committing several violent acts, including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. That specific attack killed 14 people and injured thousands more. Asahara was eventually convicted for masterminding these attacks and other assassinations. He was sentenced to death in 2004 and was executed on July 6, 2018, along with other senior members. ]]

Asahara was born Chizuo Matsumoto on March 2, 1955, in Kumamoto Prefecture. He was the fourth son of a poor family that made tatami mats. From birth, he suffered from infantile glaucoma. This condition caused him to lose all sight in his left eye. He also became partially blind in his right eye at a young age. Because he could not join the family trade, he attended a school for the blind at age six. During his time there, he was known to be a bully who extorted money from other students. As a young man, he dreamed of ruling a kingdom of robots and becoming the Prime Minister of Japan.

After being rejected by the University of Tokyo, Matsumoto studied acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. He established a Chinese medicine shop outside of Tokyo and married in 1974. In 1981, he was convicted of practicing pharmacy without a license. He was fined ¥200,000 for selling unregulated drugs. Around this time, his interest in religion began to grow. He studied various concepts, including Chinese astrology, Taoism, yoga, and esoteric Buddhism. He eventually adopted the name Shoko Asahara and grew his hair and beard long. In 1984, he made several pilgrimages to India and claimed to have achieved enlightenment.

Asahara founded Aum Shinrikyo in 1987 from a one-bedroom apartment in Tokyo's Shibuya ward. The group began as a yoga and meditation class called Aum Shinsen no Kai. It gained official status as a religious organization in 1989. The group attracted many graduates from Japan's elite universities, leading people to call it a "religion for the elite." To recruit members, the group used the "Aum Salvation plan." They promised to cure illnesses and improve intelligence through ancient teachings. They even published comics and cartoons that used anime themes like space missions and world conspiracies to attract followers.

As the group grew, it became involved in serious criminal activities. Authors David Kaplan and Andrew Marshall reported that initiation rituals sometimes involved hallucinogens like LSD. The group used extremely ascetic practices, which some described as "yoga." These included hanging members upside down or using shock therapy. By the late 1980s, the cult faced accusations of deception and extortion. They were accused of forcing members to donate money and holding people against their will. In February 1989, a cult member was murdered for trying to leave the group.

In November 1989, Aum members committed a violent crime against the Sakamoto family. Tsutsumi Sakamoto was a lawyer working on a lawsuit against the cult. Members of the group, including chief scientist Hideo Murai, went to his home in Yokohama. They intended to kidnap Sakamoto using potassium chloride, but he was not at the station as expected. Instead, the group entered his apartment at 3 a.m. They killed Sakamoto, his wife Satoko, and their 14-month-old son, Tatsuhiko. The perpetrators hid the remains in metal drums across three different prefectures. The bodies were not found until the perpetrators revealed their locations after their arrest.

In June 1994, the cult carried out a chemical weapons attack in Matsumoto, Nagano. They aimed to attack three judges involved in a real estate lawsuit. They also wanted to test the effectiveness of sarin, a deadly chemical they were manufacturing. A group of members used a converted refrigerator truck to release the gas. The truck contained a heating device designed to turn twelve liters of liquid sarin into an aerosol.

The attack killed eight people, including five residents found in their apartments. Hundreds of others were treated for symptoms like constricted pupils and nausea. This event was a precursor to the even larger 1995 attack in Tokyo.

Asahara's actions had a massive impact on Japanese society and law enforcement. The cult had successfully recruited people from the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. This made the group's activities even more difficult to manage. The group's history is often studied in relation to how religious movements can turn toward extremism. The legal process for Asahara lasted many years, from his 2004 sentencing to his final failed appeal in 2011. His life and the actions of Aum Shinrikyo remain a significant part of Japan's modern history.