Editing Shoko Asahara (section)

==Aum Shinrikyo==
{{Main|Aum Shinrikyo}}
===Establishment===
{{nihongo|Aum Shinrikyo|オウム真理教|Oumu Shinrikyō|extra=literally 'Supreme Truth'|lead=yes}}, later named {{nihongo|Aleph|アレフ|Arefu||lead=no}}, was founded by Asahara in his one-bedroom apartment in [[Tokyo]]'s [[Shibuya]] ward in 1987, starting off as a [[yoga]] and [[meditation]] class<ref>{{cite book|title=Wolves Within the Fold: Religious Leadership and Abuses of Power|last=Shupe|first=Anson D.|year=1998|publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]|isbn=978-0-8135-2489-4|page=34}}</ref> known as {{nihongo|''Oumu Shinsen no Kai''|オウム神仙の会|"Aum [[Xian (Taoism)|Immortal Mountain Wizard]] Association"}} and steadily grew in the following years. It gained official status as a [[religious organization]] in 1989 and attracted a considerable number of graduates from Japan's elite universities, thus being dubbed a "religion for the elite".<ref name=controversial>{{cite book|title=Controversial New Religions|url=https://archive.org/details/controversialnew00lewi|url-access=limited|last=Lewis|first=James R.|author2=Jesper Aagaard Petersen|year=2005|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-515683-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/controversialnew00lewi/page/n174 162]}}</ref>

===Early activities===
Although Aum was considered controversial in [[Japan]], it was not initially associated with serious crimes until Asahara became obsessed with [[Bible prophecy|Biblical prophecies]]. Aum's public relations activities included publishing comics and animated cartoons that attempted to tie its religious ideas to popular [[anime]] and [[manga]] themes, including space missions, powerful weapons, world conspiracies, and the quest for ultimate truth.<ref>{{cite book|title=Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime|last=Macwilliams|first=Mary Wheeler|year=2008|publisher=[[M. E. Sharpe]]|isbn=978-0-7656-1602-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/japanesevisualcu0000unse/page/211 211]|url=https://archive.org/details/japanesevisualcu0000unse/page/211}}</ref> Aum published several magazines including ''[[Vajrayana]] Sacca'' and ''Enjoy Happiness'', adopting a somewhat missionary attitude.<ref name=controversial/> [[Isaac Asimov]]'s science fiction ''[[Foundation (book series)|Foundation Trilogy]]'' was referenced "depicting as it does an elite group of spiritually evolved scientists forced to go underground during an age of barbarism so as to prepare themselves for the moment...when they will emerge to rebuild civilization".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/aug/24/alqaida.sciencefictionfantasyandhorror|work=The Guardian|location=London|title=What is the origin of the name al-Qaida?|date=August 24, 2002|access-date=April 25, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100405110855/http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/aug/24/alqaida.sciencefictionfantasyandhorror|archive-date=April 5, 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> It has been posited that Aum's publications used Christian and Buddhist ideas to impress what he considered to be the more shrewd and educated Japanese who were not attracted to boring, purely traditional [[sermon]]s.<ref name=lifton>{{cite book|last=Lifton|first=Robert Jay|title=Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism|place=New York|publisher=Macmillan|year=2000}}</ref>{{rp|258}}

Advertising and recruitment activities, dubbed the "Aum Salvation plan", included claims of curing physical illnesses with health improvement techniques, realizing life goals by improving intelligence and positive thinking, and concentrating on what was important at the expense of leisure. This was to be accomplished by practicing ancient teachings, accurately translated from original [[Pali]] [[sutra]]s. These efforts resulted in Aum being able to recruit a variety of people ranging from bureaucrats to personnel from the [[Japanese Self-Defense Forces]] and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.<ref name="WIRED">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/1996/07/aum/ |title=The Cult at the End of the World |magazine=Wired |last1=Kaplan |first1=David E. }}</ref> Authors [[David E. Kaplan (author)|David Kaplan]] and [[Andrew Marshall (Asia journalist)|Andrew Marshall]], in their 1996 book, ''The Cult at the End of the World'', claim that initiation rituals often involved the use of [[hallucinogen]]s, such as [[Lysergic acid diethylamide|LSD]]. Religious practices often involved extremely ascetic practices claimed to be "yoga". These included everything from renunciants being hung upside down to being given [[Electroconvulsive therapy|shock therapy]].<ref name=kaplan2>{{cite book|last1=Kaplan|first1=David E.|first2=Andrew|last2=Marshall|year=1996|title=The Cult at the End of The World|place=London, UK|publisher=Hutchinson}}</ref>

The [[cult]] started attracting controversy in the late-1980s with accusations of deception of recruits, holding cult members against their will, forcing members to donate money and murdering a cult member who tried to leave in February 1989.<ref name=cultdeath>{{cite news|title=Aum member tells of 2 deaths at compound|work=The Daily Yomiuri |location=Tokyo|page=1|date=September 24, 1995}}</ref><ref name=rearrest>{{cite news|title=Asahara rearrested in 1989 cultist murder|work=The Daily Shimbun |page=2|date=October 21, 1995}}</ref> Kaplan and Marshall alleged in their book that Aum was also connected with such activities as [[extortion]]. The group, authors report, "commonly took patients into its hospitals and then forced them to pay exorbitant medical bills".<ref name=kaplan2/>

===Sakamoto family murder===
{{Main|Sakamoto family murder}}

In October 1989, [[Tokyo Broadcasting System Television]] (TBS) taped an interview with 33-year-old Tsutsumi Sakamoto, a lawyer working on a [[class action]] lawsuit against Aum Shinrikyo, regarding his anti-Aum efforts. However, the network secretly showed a video of the interview to Aum members without Sakamoto's knowledge, intentionally breaking its [[protection of sources]]. Aum officials then pressured TBS to cancel the planned broadcast of the interview.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1996/04/03/Japan-TV-network-fights-ethics-charges/3444828507600/|title=Japan TV network fights ethics charges|publisher=UPI|access-date=2018-07-06|language=en}}</ref><ref>"Ex-TBS affiliate staff showed video to Aum", ''Jiji Press Ticker Service'' (Tokyo), 27 March 1996.</ref> Several days later, on November 3, 1989, several Aum Shinrikyo members, including [[Hideo Murai]], chief scientist, Satoro Hashimoto, a [[martial arts]] master, Tomomasa Nakagawa and [[Kazuaki Okazaki]] drove to [[Yokohama]], where Sakamoto lived. They carried a pouch with fourteen [[Hypodermic needle|hypodermic needles]] and a supply of [[potassium chloride]]. According to court testimony provided by the perpetrators later, they planned to use the chemical substance to [[Kidnapping|kidnap]] Sakamoto from Yokohama's [[Shinkansen]] train station, but, contrary to expectations, he did not show up—it was a holiday (''Bunka no hi'', or "[[Culture Day]]"), so he slept in with his family at home.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Ian|last=Reader|title=Scholarship, Aum Shinrikyô, and Academic Integrity|journal=Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions|volume=3|number=2|date=April 2000|page=370|doi=10.1525/nr.2000.3.2.368|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=death>{{cite news|title=Japan Sect's Role in Murder Case Emerges, Prompting Outcry|first=Nicholas D.|last=Kristof|date=March 14, 1996|work=The New York Times|page=A9}}</ref>

At 3 a.m. on November 5, the group entered Sakamoto's apartment through an unlocked door. Tsutsumi Sakamoto was struck on the head with a hammer, injected with [[potassium chloride]], and strangled.<ref>Yomiuri Shimbun, "Asahara 'justified' murder of infant", ''The Daily Yomiuri'' (Tokyo), September 14, 1995.</ref> His 29-year-old wife, Satoko Sakamoto (坂本都子 ''Sakamoto Satoko'') was beaten and injected with potassium chloride.<ref>Yomiuri Shimbun, "Cultists killed baby first, police say", ''The Daily Yomiuri'' (Tokyo), September 4, 1995.</ref> Their 14-month-old infant son Tatsuhiko Sakamoto (坂本竜彦 ''Sakamoto Tatsuhiko'') was injected with the potassium chloride and then his face was covered with a cloth. The family's remains were placed in metal drums and hidden in three separate rural areas in three different prefectures (Tsutsumi in [[Niigata Prefecture|Niigata]], Satoko in [[Toyama Prefecture|Toyama]], and Tatsuhiko in [[Nagano Prefecture|Nagano]]) so that in case the bodies were uncovered, police might not link the three incidents. Their bed sheets were burned and the tools were dropped in the ocean. The victims' teeth were smashed [[Forensic dentistry|to prevent identification]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/03/14/national/history/cult-attraction-aum-shinrikyos-power-persuasion/#.XoUEJITTVhE|title=Cult attraction: Aum Shinrikyo's power of persuasion|date=March 14, 2015}}</ref> Their bodies were not found until the perpetrators revealed the locations after they were captured in connection with the [[Tokyo subway sarin attack|1995 Tokyo subway attack]]. By the time police searched the areas in which the victims were placed, their bodies were reduced to bones.<ref>"Japanese police: Bodies are Sakamotos", ''United International Press'', September 6, 1995.</ref> TBS kept the showing of the video secret until March 25, 1996. This led to strong criticism that it contributed to the murder.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Japan TV network fights ethics charges |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1996/04/03/Japan-TV-network-fights-ethics-charges/3444828507600/ |access-date=2018-07-06 |work=UPI |language=en}}</ref>

===Matsumoto sarin attack===
{{Main|Matsumoto sarin attack}}

On the night of June 27, 1994, the cult carried out a [[chemical weapon]]s attack against civilians when they released [[sarin]] in the central Japanese city of [[Matsumoto, Nagano|Matsumoto]], Nagano. When carrying out the attack, Aum Shinrikyo had two goals; to attack three judges who were expected to rule against the cult in a lawsuit concerning a real estate dispute, and to test the efficacy of its sarin—which the cult was manufacturing at one of its facilities—as a weapon of [[mass murder]].<ref>Kyle B. Olson, "Aum Shinrikyo: Once and Future Threat?", Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Research Planning, Inc., Arlington, Virginia</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.3201/eid0504.990409|pmid=10458955|pmc=2627754 |title=Aum Shinrikyo: Once and Future Threat? |year=1999 |last1=Olson |first1=Kyle B. |journal=Emerging Infectious Diseases |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=413–416 }}</ref> Residents of Matsumoto had also angered Asahara by vigorously opposing his plan to set up an office and factory in the city's southern area. Opponents of the plan gathered 140,000 signatures on an anti-Aum petition, equivalent to 70 percent of Matsumoto's population at the time.<ref name="JT14">{{cite news|last1=Murphy|first1=Paul|title=Matsumoto: Aum's sarin guinea pig|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/06/21/national/history/matsumoto-aums-sarin-guinea-pig/ |access-date=February 24, 2017|work=The Japan Times |date=June 21, 2014}}</ref>

Aum's original plan to release the [[aerosol]] into the Matsumoto courthouse was altered when the cult members arrived in the city after the courthouse had closed. They decided to instead target a three-story apartment building where the city's judges resided. At 10:40&nbsp;pm, members of Aum used a converted [[refrigerator truck]] to release a cloud of sarin which floated near the home of the judges. The truck's cargo space held "a heating contraption that had been specifically designed to turn "twelve litres of liquid sarin into an aerosol, and fans to diffuse the aerosol into the neighbourhood".<ref name="JT14" />
[[File:Description of Aum Shinrikyo sarin truck.png|thumb|Depiction of the sarin truck]]
At 11:30&nbsp;pm, Matsumoto police received an urgent report from paramedics that casualties were being transported to hospital. The patients were suffering from darkened vision, eye pain, headaches, nausea, diarrhea, [[miosis]] (constricted pupils), and numbness in their hands. Some victims described having seen a fog with a pungent and irritating smell floating by. A total of 274 people were treated. Five dead residents were discovered in their apartments, and two died in hospital immediately after admission. An eighth victim, Sumiko Kono, remained in a [[coma]] for fourteen years and died in 2008.<ref>Seto, Yasuo. "[https://www.opcw.org/news/article/the-sarin-gas-attack-in-japan-and-the-related-forensic-investigation/ "The Sarin Gas Attack in Japan and the Related Forensic Investigation"]. The Sarin Gas Attack in Japan and the Related Forensic Investigation. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, June 1, 2001. April 18, 2021.</ref> The fatalities also included Yutaka Kobayashi, a 23-year-old [[salaryman]], and Mii Yasumoto, a 29-year-old medical school student.<ref>[[Kyodo News]], "[http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090628a8.html Matsumoto gassings remembered]", ''[[The Japan Times]]'', June 28, 2009, p. 2. (offline)</ref>

===Additional incidents before 1995===
The cult is known to have considered [[assassination]]s of several individuals critical of the cult, such as the heads of Buddhist sects [[Soka Gakkai]] and [[Happy Science|The Institute for Research in Human Happiness]]. After cartoonist [[Yoshinori Kobayashi]] began satirizing the cult, he was included on Aum's assassination list. An assassination attempt was made on Kobayashi in 1993.<ref name=david>{{cite news|last1=McNeill|first1=David|title=Nous ne sommes pas Charlie: Voices that mock authority in Japan muzzled|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/01/26/issues/nous-ne-sommes-pas-charlie-voices-mock-authority-japan-muzzled|work=The Japan Times|date=January 26, 2015}}</ref> In 1991, Aum began to use [[wiretapping]] to get [[Nippon Telegraph and Telephone|NTT]] uniforms/equipment and created a manual for wiretapping.<ref name="WIRED"/>

In July 1993, cult members sprayed large amounts of liquid containing ''[[Bacillus anthracis]]'' spores from a cooling tower on the roof of Aum Shinrikyo's Tokyo headquarters. However, their plan to cause an [[anthrax]] epidemic failed. The attack resulted in a large number of complaints about bad odors but no infections.<ref name="Takahashi2004">{{cite journal|last1=Takahashi|first1=Hiroshi|title=Bacillus anthracis Bioterrorism Incident, Kameido, Tokyo, 1993|journal=Emerging Infectious Diseases|date=2004|volume=10|issue=1|pages=117–20|doi=10.3201/eid1001.030238|pmid=15112666|pmc=3322761}}</ref> At the end of 1993, the cult started secretly manufacturing the nerve agents [[sarin]] and later [[VX (nerve agent)|VX]]. Aum tested its sarin on sheep at [[Banjawarn Station]], a remote pastoral property in Western Australia, killing 29 sheep. Both sarin and VX were then used in several assassinations between 1994 and 1995.<ref name="Tandfon"/><ref name="Research"/>

At the end of 1994, the cult broke into the [[Hiroshima]] factory of [[Mitsubishi Heavy Industries]], in an attempt to steal technical documents on military weapons such as tanks and artillery.<ref name="kaplan2" /> In December 1994 and January 1995, [[Masami Tsuchiya (terrorist)|Masami Tsuchiya]] of Aum Shinrikyo synthesized 100 to 200&nbsp;grams of VX which was used to attack three people. On December 2, Noboru Mizuno was attacked with syringes containing [[VX nerve agent]], leaving him in a serious condition.<ref>{{cite news|first=Pamela|last=Zurer|title=Japanese cult used VX to slay member|work=Chemical and Engineering News|year=1998|volume=76|number=35}}</ref> The VX victim, who Asahara had suspected was a spy, was attacked at 7:00&nbsp;a.m. on December 12, 1994, on a street in [[Osaka]] by [[Tomomitsu Niimi]] and another Aum member, who sprinkled the nerve agent on his neck. He chased them for about {{convert|100|yd|m}} before collapsing, dying ten days later without coming out of a deep coma. Doctors in the hospital suspected at the time he had been poisoned with an [[organophosphate]] pesticide. But the cause of death was pinned down only after cult members were arrested for the [[Tokyo subway sarin attack|subway attack in Tokyo]] in March 1995 confessed to the killing.<ref name="Tandfon"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/1999/11/04/national/the-asahara-trial-aum-member-explains-vx-attack/|title=The Asahara Trial: Aum member explains VX attack|work=Japan Times|date=November 4, 1999 |accessdate=2023-03-04}}</ref><ref name="Research">{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Syringe-and-tube-used-to-injure-two-victims-The-photographs-were-given-to-Tu-by_fig1_343395749|title=The use of VX as a terrorist agent: action by Aum Shinrikyo of Japan and the death of Kim Jong-Nam in Malaysia: four case studies|work=Research Gate|accessdate=2023-03-04}}</ref>

On January 4, Hiroyuki Nagaoka, an important member of the Aum Victims' Society, a civil organization that protested against the sect's activities, was assassinated in the same way.<ref name="Tandfon">{{cite journal|title=The use of VX as a terrorist agent: action by Aum Shinrikyo of Japan and the death of Kim Jong-Nam in Malaysia: four case studies|journal=Global Security: Health, Science and Policy|year=2020 |doi=10.1080/23779497.2020.1801352 |last1=Tu |first1=Anthony T. |volume=5 |pages=48–56 |s2cid=226613084 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dw.com/es/el-agente-vx-un-veneno-diez-veces-m%C3%A1s-potente-que-el-sar%C3%ADn/a-37711570|title=El agente VX: un veneno diez veces más potente que el sarín|publisher=Deutsche Welle|accessdate=2023-03-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/skin-on-fire-a-firsthand-account-of-a-vx-attack-1487937315|title=Skin on Fire: A Firsthand Account of a VX Attack|work=Washington State Journal|date=February 24, 2017 |accessdate=2023-03-04 |last1=Gale |first1=Alastair }}</ref><ref name="Research"/>
In February 1995, several cult members kidnapped Kiyoshi Kariya, a 69-year-old brother of a member who had escaped, from a Tokyo street and took him to a compound in [[Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi|Kamikuishiki]] near [[Mount Fuji]], where he was killed. His corpse was destroyed in a [[microwave]]-powered incinerator and the remnants disposed of in [[Lake Kawaguchi]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/01/aum-shinri-kyo-fugitive|title=Aum Shinrikyo cult fugitive turns himself in after 16 years|work=[[The Guardian]]|agency=[[Associated Press]]|date=January 1, 2012}}</ref> Before Kariya was abducted, he had been receiving threatening phone calls demanding to know the whereabouts of his sister, and he had left a note saying, "If I disappear, I was abducted by Aum Shinrikyo".<ref name="Tandfon"/> 

Police made plans to simultaneously raid cult facilities across Japan in March 1995.<ref name=chrono>{{cite news| title=Chronology: Events involving Aum Shinrikyo|work=The Nikkei Weekly|publisher=The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Incorporated|location=New York|page=Issues & People, page 3|date=May 22, 1995}}</ref> Prosecutors alleged Asahara was tipped off about this and that he ordered the Tokyo subway attack to divert police.<ref name="Research"/> Meanwhile, Aum had also attempted to manufacture 1,000 [[assault rifle]]s, but only completed one.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/837000.stm|title=Japan cultists sentenced to death|date=July 17, 2000|publisher=BBC News|access-date=January 2, 2012}}</ref> According to the testimony of Kenichi Hirose at the [[Tokyo District Court]] in 2000, Asahara wanted the group to be self-sufficient in manufacturing copies of the [[Soviet Union]]'s main infantry weapon, the [[AK-74]];<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2000/07/08/national/cultist-says-asahara-ordered-1000-machineguns-be-made/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412133948/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2000/07/08/national/cultist-says-asahara-ordered-1000-machineguns-be-made/|archive-date=April 12, 2019|title=Cultist says Asahara ordered 1,000 machineguns be made |work=The Japan Times|date=July 8, 2000}}</ref> one rifle was smuggled into Japan to be studied so that Aum could [[reverse-engineer]] and mass-produce it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2018/10/25/aum-shinrikyo-death-cult-made-ak74-assault-rifles/|title=Aum Shinrikyo death cult made AK74 assault rifles -|date=October 25, 2018}}</ref> Police seized AK-74 components and blueprints from a vehicle used by an Aum member on April 6, 1995.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fas.org/irp/congress/1995_rpt/aum/part04.htm|title=IV. The Operation of the Aum – A Case Study on the Aum Shinrikyo}}</ref>