Editing Aum Shinrikyo (section)

===Incidents before 1995===
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict    = Aum affair
| partof      = 
| image       = 
| caption     = 
| date        = 1989 – March 20, 1995
| place       = [[Japan]]
| coordinates =
| map_type    = 
| latitude    = 
| longitude   = 
| map_size    = 
| map_caption = 
| map_label   = 
| territory   = 
| result      = Arrest of Shoko Asahara<br>Government Victory
| status      = 
| combatant1  = {{JPN}}
| combatant2  = [[File:Aum symbol.svg|25px]] Aum Shinrikyo
| combatant3  = 
| commander1  = [[Tomiichi Murayama]]
| commander2  = [[Shoko Asahara]]{{executed}}
| commander3  = 
| strength1   = 
| strength2   = 
| strength3   = 
| units1   = [[Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department|MPD]]<br>[[Riot Police Unit]]<br>[[1st Airborne Brigade (Japan)|1st Airborne Brigade]]<br>civilian protesters
| units2   = Armed believers
| units3   = 
| casualties1 = 27 killed<br> 6,000+ injured
| casualties2 = 1 killed<br>192+ arrested<br>(later 13 executed)
| casualties3 =
| notes       = 
}}
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|publisher=The Japan News|location=Tokyo|page=1|date=24 September 1995}}</ref><ref name=rearrest>{{cite news|title=Asahara rearrested in 1989 cultist murder|work=The Daily Shimbun|publisher=The Japan News|page=2|date=21 October 1995}}</ref>

In October 1989, the group's negotiations with [[Sakamoto family murder|Tsutsumi Sakamoto]], an [[Anti-cult movement|anti-cult]] lawyer threatening a [[lawsuit]] against them, which could potentially bankrupt the group, failed. In the same month, Sakamoto recorded an interview for a talk show on the Japanese TV station [[Tokyo Broadcasting System|TBS]]. The network then had the interview secretly shown to the group without notifying Sakamoto, intentionally breaking [[protection of sources]]. The group then pressured TBS to cancel the broadcast. The following month, Sakamoto, his wife and his child went missing from their home in [[Yokohama]]. The police were unable to resolve the case at the time, although some of his colleagues publicly voiced their suspicions of the group. It was not until after the [[Tokyo subway sarin attack|1995 Tokyo attack]] that they were found to have been [[Sakamoto family murder|murdered]] and their bodies dumped in separate locations by cult members.<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=14 March 1996|work=The New York Times|page=A9}}</ref>

Kaplan and Marshall allege 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/>

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 manga artist [[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=26 January 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, likely because they used a vaccine strain of ''[[Bacillus anthracis]]'' that is generally regarded as nonpathogenic. 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 agent [[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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Quillen |first=Chris |title=Dead Sheep Tell No Tales: Aum Shinrikyo's Alleged Sarin Tests in Australia Never Happened |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2025.2494251 |journal=Studies in Conflict & Terrorism |date=2025 |volume=0 |pages=1–23 |doi=10.1080/1057610X.2025.2494251 |issn=1057-610X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

On the night of 27 June 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 Prefecture|Nagano]]. With the help of a converted [[refrigerator truck]], members of the cult released a cloud of sarin, which floated near the homes of judges who were overseeing a lawsuit concerning a real-estate dispute, which was predicted to go against the cult. This [[Matsumoto sarin attack|Matsumoto incident]] killed eight and harmed 500 more.<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> Police investigations focused only on an innocent local resident, [[Yoshiyuki Kōno (victim)|Yoshiyuki Kouno]], and failed to implicate the cult at the time. It was only after the [[Tokyo subway sarin attack|Tokyo subway attack]] that Aum Shinrikyo was discovered to be behind the Matsumoto sarin attack.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}

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, Aum Shinrikyo member [[Masami Tsuchiya (terrorist)|Masami Tsuchiya]] synthesized 100 to 200&nbsp;grams of VX which was used to attack three people. On 2 December, Noboru Mizuno, who was believed to have assisted former members of Aum, was attacked with syringes containing [[VX gas]], 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> Tadahito Hamaguchi, whom Asahara suspected was a spy, was attacked at 7:00&nbsp;a.m. on 12 December 1994 on the 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 10 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, the cause of death pinned down only after cult members arrested for the [[Tokyo subway sarin attack|subway attack in Tokyo]] in March 1995 confessed to the killing. Ethyl methylphosphonate, methylphosphonic acid, and diisopropyl-2-(methylthio) ethylamine were later found in the body of the victim; unlike the cases for [[sarin]] ([[Matsumoto incident]] and Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway), VX was not used for mass murder.<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=4 November 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 4 January 1995, the cult tried to kill Hiroyuki Nagaoka, an important member of the Aum Victims' Society, a civil organization that protested against the sect's activities, 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|work=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=24 February 2017 |accessdate=2023-03-04 |last1=Gale |first1=Alastair }}</ref><ref name="Research"/>
In February 1995, several cult members kidnapped Kiyoshi Kariya, the 69-year-old brother of an escaped former member, 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=1 January 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=22 May 1995}}</ref> Prosecutors alleged Asahara was tipped off about this and that he ordered the Tokyo subway attack to divert police.<ref name="Research"/>

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=17 July 2000|work=BBC News|access-date=2 January 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 = 12 April 2019|title = Cultist says Asahara ordered 1,000 machineguns be made &#124; the Japan Times|date = 8 July 2000}}</ref> one rifle was smuggled into Japan to be studied so that Aum could [[reverse engineer]] and mass-produce the AK-74.<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 = 25 October 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>