February 18, 2025
TOKYO – With next month marking 30 years since the Aum Supreme Truth cult made its deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, the Public Security Intelligence Agency will open a special website carrying statements from bereaved relatives and writings by such people as subway company and fire department officials.
The dedicated website will also carry photos related to the attack, among other content, and will be accessible by the public as early as Friday. Aimed at preventing the cult’s deeds from fading from memory, the site will provide an overview of the incident and the nature of Aum in an easy-to-understand manner.
On the morning of March 20, 1995, the highly toxic nerve agent sarin was released in train cars on three Tokyo subway lines that all pass through Kasumigaseki Station, which is located near many government buildings. The attack left 13 people dead and injured or sickened more than 6,000 others.
In 2020, a woman died after a 25-year battle with the effects of the gas.
Aum cult founder Chizuo Matsumoto, then 63, and 12 of his senior henchmen were executed in 2018.
The digital archive of the cult’s deeds contains statements and writings by about 20 people that were collected by agency officials over the course of about 1½ years. Bereaved relatives spoke in interviews, and people including a doctor and a subway company employee wrote about their experience.
Shizue Takahashi, 78, lost her husband, who was a deputy stationmaster at Kasumigaseki Station. She talked about her feelings when the attack occurred and what she wants to convey to young people.
Shinichi Ishimatsu, 65, the president of St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo, treated injured people. He wrote about the situation at the hospital, which was plunged into turmoil after the attack, and the seriousness of the aftereffects on the victims.
The website will also present writings by employees of the subway company, the Metropolitan Police Department and the Tokyo Fire Department. With the cooperation of the Defense Ministry and others, the website will feature about 100 photographs, including some of the Self-Defense Forces disinfecting subway cars in which the deadly gas was released.
The website is designed to attract the interest of younger people who may not be familiar with the attack or the cult. On the top page, keywords and numbers related to the group will be shown in large type, and users can click on them for an explanation.
Regarding the word “poa,” for instance, the website will explain that Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, treated murder as a positive doctrine by calling the act “poa.” It will also explain that “70 tons” refers to the amount of sarin gas the group planned to spray around the Kasumigaseki area and the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, and that “1,000 guns” is the 1,000 automatic rifles that Aum followers were going to use amid the confusion of the attack to take control of the capital.
The intelligence agency has covered the attack and the cult on its website and elsewhere. However, an increasing number of young people do not know about Aum Supreme Truth and what it did, so the agency is believed to have concluded that it was necessary to digitize and preserve the statements, photos and other materials to keep future generations informed.
Additional statements and materials will be digitized and posted on the website as they become available.
Young people unfamiliar with Aum attacks join connected groups
VISUAL: THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN
More than half the people who newly joined groups linked to the Aum Supreme Truth cult in the 10 years through 2023 were between 10 and 29 years old, according to the Public Security Intelligence Agency.
As of January, these groups had a total of about 1,600 followers in Japan, the agency said.
The main successor organization, Aleph, recruits new members through social media and other means, while hiding its name and pretending to be an organizer of social activity clubs. After building relationships with attendees through study sessions and other occasions, Aleph entices them to join the group, according to the agency.
“Many of the younger generation born after the [1995 sarin] attack are unfamiliar with the true nature of the cult, so there are fears that the connected groups may take advantage of that,” said an agency official in charge of the matter.
“We’re increasingly alarmed by the fact that the incident is fading from memory, so we want to make the attack and the cult more widely known through the website dedicated to that purpose,” the official added.