Latest news with #AumShinrikyo
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Japanese authorities fear sarin death cult founder's son is continuing his legacy
Japanese authorities have warned that the son of a cult leader behind the deadly sarin nerve gas attack in Tokyo's subway network in 1995 is now the leader of a successor group. At least 14 people were killed and more than 5,000 were left sickened after the cult's members released sarin nerve gas in the capital's subway trains on 20 March in 1995. The cult, Aum Shinrikyo or Supreme Truth, was disbanded and its founder Chizuo Matsumoto, known as Shoko Asahara, and 12 of his disciples were executed in 2018 for carrying out the attack. Yet other groups continue to spread Shoko Asahara's apocalyptic messaging. One of the most prominent is known as Aleph. and it continues to attract followers despite facing repeated restrictions from the government for failing to declare its assets. Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency (PSIA) on Tuesday announced that the 31-year-old second son of Shoko Asahara, a shadowy figure whose true identity is not known, has been 'involved in organisational decision-making and is leading Aleph's operations'. On Tuesday, the PSIA said that the man has been leading Aleph's operations for about a decade with help from Asahara's 66-year-old widow Tomoko Matsumoto. By 2017, the son had begun referring to himself as a 'second-generation guru', reported The Japan Times. The agency also confirmed that the group has 20 facilities around Japan with an estimated 1,190 followers as it published its latest report into Aleph's status and activities. Officials in Japan have prohibited the use of the group's 16 facilities across the country and designated the residence used by Asahara's son and widow in Saitama prefecture's Koshigaya city as the new Aleph site. It is also known as the 'Shin-Koshigaya facility', the report added. The PSIA is now looking to force the son-mother duo to disclose the property's purpose and activities held there. Around 1,600 former members still operate under renamed groups and have ignored an order to pay damages to survivors and bereaved families. During the 8am attack in 1995, five cult members got on separate train cars on three subway lines converging at Kasumigaseki, Japan's government centre, each dropping bags of sarin onto train carriage floors. They punctured the bags with umbrellas, releasing the gas inside the train cars which had hundreds of people inside. Within minutes, commuters poured out of the trains onto the platforms, rubbing their eyes and gasping for air. Some collapsed. Others fled into the streets where ambulances and rescue workers in hazmat suits gave first-aid Shizue Takahashi lost her husband, a deputy station master, in the attack. She expressed alarm that Asahara's second son has been identified as his de facto successor. 'Asahara's second son was born and raised within the Aum Shinrikyo cult and has been indoctrinated during that time by his father's teachings,' Ms Takahashi told the South China Morning Post. She claimed he 'personally desires to seize power and rebuild the organisation'. 'If he becomes as powerful within the cult as his father was, I believe he will try to expand it and create a new version of Aum Shinrikyo,' she told the SCMP.
Japan Times
7 days ago
- Japan Times
Son of executed Aum Shinrikyo founder identified as Aleph leader
The Public Security Intelligence Agency (PSIA) has identified the second son of Shoko Asahara — the founder of the now-defunct Aum Shinrikyo cult — as the de facto head of Aleph, the group regarded as Aum's successor, it announced Tuesday. The unnamed 31-year-old son of Chizuo Matsumoto, who was commonly known as Shoko Asahara, has been 'involved in organizational decision-making and is leading Aleph's operations,' the PSIA said in a statement. The agency has made moves to tighten restrictions on the group's activities. Matsumoto, who was executed in 2018, was the mastermind behind a series of deadly crimes carried out by Aum Shinrikyo, including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 14 people and injured thousands. The agency also filed a request with the Public Security Examination Commission to extend for another six months the current restrictions on Aleph, including the prohibition of facility use, as a preventive measure under the law governing organizations responsible for indiscriminate mass murder, citing the group's failure to comply with its reporting obligations. As part of the request, authorities moved to prohibit the use of the group's 16 facilities nationwide and designated the residence of the second son and his 66-year-old mother — Matsumoto's widow — in the city of Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, as a new Aleph site, dubbed the 'Shin-Koshigaya Facility.' The agency is seeking to force the pair to disclose the property's purpose and activities. The PSIA formally identified the mother as an Aleph member acting in a supervisory capacity to assist her son. This marks the first time the second son has been officially designated a member of the organization. Authorities are increasingly wary of his growing influence. According to the agency and related sources, Matsumoto designated his second son as one of his successors while still alive. Since around 2014, the son has reportedly been involved in Aleph's decision-making processes and ritual ceremonies. By around 2017, he had begun referring to himself as a 'second-generation guru.' On March 26, PSIA officials attempted to conduct an on-site inspection of the residence, but were denied entry. The Saitama Prefectural Police, acting on a criminal complaint from the agency, subsequently raided the home and discovered several tens of million yen in cash. Authorities are investigating the origin of the funds and suspect Aleph may have been providing financial support to the household. As of the end of April, Aleph had at least 1,190 followers, according to the PSIA. The group has seen a slowdown in recruitment efforts in recent years, attributed to increased restrictions on the use of its facilities and the departure of key senior members. Translated by The Japan Times
Japan Times
16-07-2025
- Japan Times
Tens of millions of yen found at home of Aum Shinrikyo founder's wife
Police in Saitama Prefecture have found tens of millions of yen in cash at the home of the wife of the now-defunct Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult's founder Chizuo Matsumoto, who went by the name Shoko Asahara, informed sources said Tuesday. The cash was found when the Saitama Prefectural Police searched the apartment of Matsumoto's 66-year-old wife and 31-year-old second son, the sources said. Matsumoto was executed in 2018 over a series of incidents involving the cult, including the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway system.
RTÉ News
27-06-2025
- RTÉ News
'Twitter killer' who murdered nine is executed in Japan
A man who murdered and dismembered nine people he met online, has been executed in Japan, in the country's first enactment of the death penalty since 2022. Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, was executed for killing his young victims, all but one of whom were women, after contacting them on the social media platform now called X. Dubbed the 'Twitter Killer' he had targeted users who posted about taking their own lives, telling them he could help them in their plans, or even die alongside them. Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said Shiraishi's crimes, carried out in 2017, included "robbery, rape, murder... destruction of a corpse and abandonment of a corpse". Shiraishi acted "for the genuinely selfish reason of satisfying his own sexual and financial desires" and the murders "caused great shock and anxiety to society", Mr Suzuki said. "After much careful consideration, I ordered the execution." Japan and the United States are the only two G7 countries to still use capital punishment, and there is overwhelming support for the practice among the Japanese public. Shiraishi was sentenced to death in 2020 for the murders of his nine victims, aged between 15 and 26. After luring them to his small home near the capital, he hid parts of their bodies around the apartment in coolers and toolboxes sprinkled with cat litter in a bid to hide the evidence. His lawyers had argued Shiraishi should receive a prison sentence rather than be executed because his victims had expressed suicidal thoughts and so had consented to die. But a judge dismissed that argument, calling Shiraishi's crimes "cunning and cruel", according to reports at the time. The dignity of the victims was trampled upon," the judge had said, adding that Shiraishi had preyed upon people who were "mentally fragile". The murders were discovered in autumn 2017 by police investigating the disappearance of a 23-year-old woman who had reportedly tweeted about wanting to take her own life. Her brother gained access to her Twitter account and eventually led police to Shiraishi's residence, where investigators found the nine dismembered bodies. There are 100 prisoners on death row in Japan. Nearly half are seeking a retrial, Mr Suzuki said. Japanese law stipulates that executions must be carried out within six months of a verdict after appeals are exhausted. In reality, however, most inmates are left in solitary confinement for years, and sometimes decades. There is widespread criticism of the system and the government's lack of transparency over the practice. In 2022, Tomohiro Kato was executed for an attack that killed seven people in 2008, when he rammed a rented two-tonne truck into a crowd in Tokyo's Akihabara district, before getting out and going on a stabbing spree. The high-profile executions of the guru Shoko Asahara and 12 former members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult took place in 2018.
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First Post
27-06-2025
- First Post
Japan executes infamous 'Twitter Killer' who killed 9 people, first capital punishment since 2022: Report
The justice ministry declined to confirm the hanging but NHK, citing government sources, said the prisoner was 34-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi, who murdered nine people in 2017 read more The Twitter killed killed nine people who he first reached out on Twitter. Representational Image Japan has executed a death row prisoner, public broadcaster NHK and other media outlets said Friday, the first time since 2022 that the country has enacted capital punishment. The justice ministry declined to confirm the hanging but NHK, citing government sources, said the prisoner was 34-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi, who murdered nine people in 2017. Shiraishi – dubbed the 'Twitter killer' – was sentenced to death for murdering and dismembering nine people he met on the social media platform, now called X. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Shiraishi is said to have lured his mostly female victims, aged between 15 and 26, to his apartment near Tokyo, where he killed them and cut up their bodies. He admitted murdering all nine, having made contact with suicidal victims on Twitter and offered to help them die, before stashing bits of bodies in coolers around his small apartment, according to media reports. Japan and the United States are the only two members of the Group of Seven industrialised economies to retain the death penalty. There is overwhelming public support for the practice, and a 2024 Japanese government survey of 1,800 respondents showed 83 percent saw the death penalty as 'unavoidable'. In 2022, Tomohiro Kato was hanged for an attack in 2008 in which he rammed a rented two-tonne truck into a crowd in Tokyo's Akihabara district, before getting out and going on a stabbing spree in an attack that killed seven people. 'I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn't matter who I'd kill,' he told police at the time. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As of December 2023, some 107 prisoners were waiting for their death sentences to be carried out, the Justice Ministry told AFP. It is always done by hanging. The law stipulates that executions must be carried out within six months of a final verdict after appeals are exhausted. In reality, however, most inmates are left on tenterhooks in solitary confinement for years – and sometimes decades – causing severe consequences for their mental health. There is widespread criticism of the system and the government's lack of transparency over the practice. Inmates are often informed of their impending death at the last minute, typically in the early morning before it happens. The high-profile executions of the guru Shoko Asahara and 12 former members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult took place in 2018. Aum Shinrikyo orchestrated the 1995 sarin gas attacks on Tokyo's subway system, killing 14 people and making thousands more ill.
