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"The law in an emergency is to kill one's opponent in a single blow, for instance the way research was conducted on soman and sarin during World War II."

Shoko Asahara, born Chizuo Matsumoto, is the founder and former leader of Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese terrorist cult responsible for the infamous Tokyo subway sarin gas attack of 1995.

Background
Matsumoto was the fourth son of a poor family of tatami mat makers in Kumamoto province, Japan. As an infant, he lost all sight in his left eye and two thirds from his right one due to infantile glaucoma. Because he was unable to follow the family trade, Matsumoto was enrolled as a full-time boarder in a school for the blind, when he was six years old, and he never lived again with his family. Since he was the only child with some sight left in the school, Matsumoto offered other children to guide them to a snack shop in exchange for money. This made him popular in the school, although some accounts also claim that he was a bully. Matsumoto soon developed a fantasy about being the absolute leader of a kingdom of intelligent robots, and told his schoolmates that his dream was to become Prime Minister of Japan one day. However, his application to study politics at Tokyo University was rejected in 1973. Matsumoto turned then to study acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, which are common occupations for the blind in Japan, and established a Chinese medicine shop outside Tokyo. In 1978, Matsumoto married his wife, Tomoko, and he went on to father either twelve children (officially) or fifteen (as claimed by Asahara's family). During this period, Matsumoto also studied Chinese astrology, eastern and western esotericism, and different religions including Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity. He let his hair and beard grow, and adopted the alias Shoko Asahara. Shoko means "an offering of incense" in Japanese, and Asahara is a surname that suggests an aristocratic background, unlike the plebeian-sounding Matsumoto. In 1982, Asahara lost his herbalist license and was briefly imprisoned for selling drugs without a pharmacist license. He opened a yoga school and attempted to create his first cult-like group, the Heavenly Blessing Association, but it was a failure. Starting in 1984, Asahara made several pilgrimages to India, where he met Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. Asahara claims that during these travels he achieved Enlightenment, met Shiva, and was trusted by the Dalai Lama with a "special mission" to preach "real Buddhism" in Japan. When asked about years later, the Dalai Lama confirmed that he had met "a strange Japanese man," but denied to have given any mission to him. Asahara returned definitely to Japan in 1987. He assumed the title sonshi (guru) and claimed that he had mastered meditation to the point of being able to defy gravity and lift himself in the air using only the power of his mind. He advertised this feat through brochures printed by his own publishing house, but it had little impact besides being featured in some occult-themed Japanese magazines.

Beginning
"Their strategy is to wear you down and take control of your mind. They promise you heaven, but they make you live in hell." -An unnamed defector Still in 1987, Asahara legally changed his name, and applied to register his new cult Aum Shinrikyo ("Aum Supreme Truth", henceforth "Aum") as a religious association (there is no difference between religions and cults under Japanese law). This status was granted in 1989, exempting Aum's activities from taxation. Keys to this success were Asahara's decision to target college students for conversion and the extensive use of new media like TV, manga and anime as propaganda tools. In contrast to other Japanese cults, all of Aum's members were wealthy and educated, which earned Aum the nickname of "the religion of the elite". Around the same time, Asahara became obsessed with Nostradamus and the Biblical Armageddon. He adopted the idea of a "Buddhist Hell" and used it to justify the abduction and torture of defecting members, because this was the only way to save them; later, it would be also used to justify the murder of anyone outside the cult, arguing that such people were already condemned and a threat to Aum followers. Asahara predicted that Armageddon would start with an American nuclear strike against Japan, around 1997, and that only Aum followers would be left alive to repopulate the world. As 1989 progressed, Asahara amassed an enormous wealth as a result of donations from Aum followers and the sale of cult relics at exorbitant prices. Outwardly, he continued to have a life as deprived as his followers, his only apparent luxury being driven around in a Mercedes-Benz donated by a member. The same year, Aum purchased land near the base of Mount Fuji and built a facility for the production of cyanide gas, mustard gas, sarin and botulinum toxin.

First Murders and Terrorist Attacks
By the end of 1989, controversy had grown about the living conditions in Aum's communes and the abductions of defectors. Their relatives solicited the services of Tsutsumi Sakamoto, a young Yokohama lawyer who had gained fame as an anti-cult lawyer after successfully leading a lawsuit against the Unification Church and hurting its finances severely. While preparing a similar lawsuit against Aum, Sakamoto personally embarassed Asahara by requesting a blood sample from him in order to test it for the "special power" that Asahara said was present through his body, and then announcing in public that the sample contained nothing special. The last straw was when Sakamoto gave an interview to TBS about his anti-Aum findings. Aum's agents at TBS alerted the cult, which in turn pressed TBS successfully to not air the interview. On November 3, 1989 four Aum members drove to Yokohama with the intention of abducting Sakamoto from a train station. However, they had to change plans when they discovered that he had the day off and was spending it at home with his family. At 3 AM, the cultists invaded Sakamoto's home and murdered Tsutsumi, his wife Satoko and their infant son, Tatsuhiko. They took the bodies and disposed of them separatedly. Despite the events directly preceding their disappearances, no link was established between the case and Aum until the perpetrators confessed in the aftermath of the subway attack. In 1990, Asahara founded his own political party, "Truth", and run for Prime Minister in the Japanese general elections. Truth had no program and its campaign acts consisted solely of Aum members chanting Asahara's name. Nevertheless, Asahara had convinced himself that he would be elected to such a degree that the news of Truth failing to even enter parliament were a profound shock to him. Asahara's retreat to an Okinawan island with 1,000 of his followers was met by media speculation that he was following the example of Jim Jones and planning a mass suicide. Instead, Asahara concluded that his fate was not to be peacefully acclaimed by Japan and then the rest of the world, like Buddha, but that he would be rejected and martyred first, like Jesus. He announced that he was "The Christ" and "The Lamb of God", sent to erradicate sin from the world, and that his now declining health was a result of him giving his own strength to his followers. Regarding Armageddon, Asahara said that it would still come in the date revealed, but that the war would actually be started by Aum followers. That year, the cult attacked two US military bases in Japan and several Tokyo landmarks with botulinum toxin, but they failed to produce any victims. Asahara's sermons acquired an increasingly conspiracist tone, as he accused the Jews, Freemasons, Dutch, the British monarchy and rival Japanese cults of being part of a complot against Aum.

In the following years, Asahara explored multiple means of mass destruction. Aum opened its first office in Russia in 1991, and in 1992, Asahara tried to personally recruit Russian Physics Nobel Prize-winner Nikolay Basov to create an advanced weapons system. The same year, the cult built a weapons factory in Ishikawa Prefecture where they attempted to reverse-engineer and build their own AK-74s, but they could not assemble the parts properly. They also sent a team to collect an ebola strain in Zaire; another to study Nikola Tesla's works in the Belgrade museum with the aim of creating a machine capable of producing earthquakes; and purchased forty-eight-thousand acres and mining licenses in Western Australia with the intention of acquiring uranium for an atomic bomb. The mining equipment was beyond the cult's funds, however, so they used the land to test anthrax attacks, killing twenty-four sheep. After a new round of unsuccessful attacks in 1993 against Crown Prince Naruhito's wedding and Tokyo landmarks, the cult abandoned bacteriological warfare and turned all their efforts to the production of the chemical agents VX, phosgene, hydrogen cyanide (a.k.a. Zyklon B) and sarin. The cult intended or attempted unsuccessfully to assasinate TV producer Dave Spector and manga artist Yoshinori Kobayashi for satyrizing Aum; Daisaku Ikeda, the honorary president of rival cult Soka Gakkai; and Taro Takimoto, the lawyer who had taken over Sakamoto's planned lawsuit after he disappeared.

The Matsumoto and Tokyo Sarin Gas Attacks
On the evening of June 17, 1994 Aum members used a converted refrigerator truck to release a sarin cloud in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, near the homes of judges overseeing a lawsuit concerning a real-state dispute that was predicted to go against the cult. The judges were unharmed, but seven other people were killed and a 46 year-old woman, Sumiko Kouno, was left in a coma. Over 200 other people were injured. Though law enforcement received an anonymous tip pointing to Aum, the police centered their investigation on Kouno's husband, Yoshiyuki, after it was discovered that there was a large ammount of pesticides in their residence. The suspicions were leaked to the media by an anonymous source, who then presented Kouno as the undisputed author of the attack. Kouno was dubbed "the Poison Gas Man" and received hate mail and death threats. Although sarin was identified as the real cause of the attack after one week, the harassment continued because Japan's second most popular newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, falsely claimed that nerve agents could be synthesized from pesticides. On September 20, the cult attempted to murder journalist and noted Aum critic Shoko Egawa with phosgene gas. Between November 1994 and February 1995 they also tried to murder several people with VX, including Noboru Mizuno, a 83 year-old man who had sheltered five Aum defectors; Hiroyuki Nagaoka, an anti-Aum activist; and Ryuho Okawa, leader of the cult Happy Science. A 28 year-old officinist who was believed to be a police informant by Aum, Takahito Hamaguchi, was the first person in the world to be killed in a VX attack. Also in February, the cult abducted 68 year-old Kiyoshi Kariya and subjected him to a rough interrogation in an attempt to learn the whereabouts of his sister, who had defected from the cult and gone into hiding. After Kariya died during interrogation, his body was incinerated and the ashes thrown in a lake.

Modus Operandi
"The subway poisoning seems to represent an aggressive, outward-reaching insanity, as if Koresh had somehow become melded with the Tylenol Killer." -TIME Magazine

Aum's internal function
Asahara's recruiters targeted academically brilliant, but socially isolated Japanese college students who looked for meaning in their lives. The new members cut relations with their friends and family, donated all their belongings to the cult and were subjected to rituals intended to erase their individuality and make them completely subservient to Asahara. They dressed in identical white yoga outfits, in contrast to the bright colors worn by Asahara and his top followers; wore masks modeled on Asahara's face, and helmets with cables supposedly able to armonize their thoughts with Asahara's; and showed their devotion to Asahara by kissing his big toe, drinking his bath water and making soup from his hair. The members who tried to leave the cult (and eventually also relatives and cult critics) were abducted and taken back to Aum's properties, where they were imprisoned, injected with LSD; and subjected to light, food and sleep deprivation. They were also beaten with rods by guards and subjected to electroshocks. The children were raised apart from their parents and received no education but the teachings of Asahara. In some cases, the victims were also murdered by lethal injection or strangulation.

The Sakamoto familicide
The Sakamoto family home was invaded through an unlocked door. Tsutsumi was struck with a hammer first, and Satoko beaten. The cultists then injected their son with potassium chloride and covered his face with a cloth after he died. Afterward, they injected the parents with the same substance, but while Satoko died, Tsutsumi survived, forcing them to strangle him. As a counterforensic measure, all three bodies were taken from the house in bedsheets and driven back to Aum's headquarters. Once there, the sheets were burned, the tools used in the murders destroyed, and the adult victims had their teeth smashed to difficult recognition. The bodies were encased in metal drums and buried in three rural areas in different prefectures: Tsutsumi in Niigata, Satoko in Toyama, and Tatsuhiko in Nagano.

Kiyoshi Kariya's murder
Kariya was taken to Aum headquarters, injected with the truth serum pentothal and interrogated until he died of unknown causes. His body was then destroyed in a microwave and his ashes disposed in a lake.

The Sakamoto family murderers

 * Hideo Murai (December 5, 1958 - April 23, 1995)
 * Physics graduate and chief scientist
 * Manufactured VX and chlorine gas
 * Stabbed to death by a Yakuza hitman while in the presence of police and about a hundred journalists
 * Satoro Hashimoto
 * Martial arts master
 * Sentenced to death and currently in death row
 * Tomomasa Nakagawa (b. 1962)
 * Former medical resident and Asahara's personal doctor
 * Sentenced to death and currently in death row
 * Renounced his Aum beliefs in 2017, apologized to the families of the victims, and called Asahara a criminal
 * Kazuaki Okazaki
 * Pled guilty to all charges in 1995
 * Sentenced to death and currently in death row

The Tokyo Subway Attackers

 * Ikuo Hayashi (b. January 23, 1947)
 * Former heart doctor
 * Tortured suspected defectors with sodium pentothal and electric shocks
 * Sentenced to life in prison instead of death because of his cooperation with police
 * Kenichi Hirose (b. 1957)
 * Physics graduate
 * Involved in Aum's light weapons development program
 * Was poisoned during the attack and had to be given the antidote
 * Sentenced to death and currently in death row
 * Toru Toyoda (b. 1968)
 * Physics graduate
 * Sentenced to death and currently in death row
 * Masato Yokoyama (b. 1964)
 * Physics graduate and former electronics company employee
 * Involved in the light weapons development program
 * Sentenced to death and currently in death row
 * Yasuo Hayashi (b. 1958)
 * Artificial Intelligence graduate
 * Given an extra package of sarin because he was suspected of being a spy by Asahara
 * Sentenced to death and currently in death row

Other members

 * Fumihiro Joyu (b. December 17, 1962)
 * Media liaison and "teen girl idol" in the early 1990s
 * Former National Space Development Agency employee
 * Succeeded Asahara as leader of Aum and changed its name to Aleph in 2000
 * Seiichi Endo (b. 1961)
 * Former AIDS researcher
 * Leader of Aum's biological weapons program
 * Harvested botulinum toxin and anthrax
 * Tomomitsu Niimi (b. 1964)
 * President of two front chemical companies of Aum
 * Was poisoned while driving a faulty sarin delivery truck that caught fire in 1993, but was administered the antidote
 * Attempted to kill Shoko Egawa and Hiroyuki Nagaoka
 * Getaway driver of Ikuo Hayashi at the Tokyo subway attack
 * Sentenced to death and currently in death row
 * Accepted the death sentence and reiterated his faith in Asahara
 * Masami Tsumiya (b. 1965)
 * Chemistry student
 * Introverted and mentally ill
 * Manufactured sarin and several other chemical compounds, supposedly to defend Aum from an outside attack
 * Makoto Hirata (b. 1966)
 * Driver at Kiyoshi Kariya's abduction
 * Also found guilty of two bombings in March 19, 1995, one at the home of a perceived Aum sympatizer and another at an Aum facility in an attempt to deflect suspicions from the cult for the subway attack the next day
 * Surrendered himself to justice in 2011 and was sentenced to nine years in prison
 * Naoko Kikuchi (b. 1972)
 * Involved in the production of sarin used in the Tokyo attack
 * Sprayed three men with VX in late 1994, including Takahito Hamaguchi
 * Arrested in June, 2012

Profile
Asahara was subjected to a psychiatric evaluation after his arrest, which was never released. Dr. Kris Mohandie's profile of Asahara for the Investigation Discovery's program Most Evil states as follows:


 * "To inflict violence on such a massive scale, one must have a delusional view of the world and his place in it. The leader of a group that carries this sort of violence must clearly be a master of manipulation and must be bankrupt of remorse. Mercifully, it is rare for an individual to possess both traits. Asahara's visions appear to be the sign of a delusional disorder. The fact that he is a guru yoga instructor and therefore already in a position of authority, makes his delusions potentially more harmful to others. As Asahara's disciples continue to worship him as a god, his ego is inflated and his delusions are intensified, ultimately making him even more dangerous. Self-centered and psychopathic, Asahara revealed his general contempt for humanity by scheming to commit murders that would spark an apocalyptic war. There is an extremely high level of evil in Asahara; his delusions however, qualify as a form of mental illness."

Mohandie gave Asahara a score of 16/22 in Stone's scale, corresponding to a psychopath capable of extreme violence.

Known Victims
Note: All attacks attributed to Asahara were committed by proxy.
 * February 1989: An unnamed cult member
 * November 4, 1989, Yokohama: The Sakamoto family
 * Tsutsumi Sakamoto, 33
 * Satoko Sakamoto, 29
 * Tatsuhiko Sakamoto, 2
 * April 1990: Several botulinum toxin attacks
 * Two US naval bases
 * Narita airport
 * The National Diet
 * The Imperial Palace
 * The headquarters of an unnamed rival cult
 * 1993:
 * June-August, Tokyo:
 * The attack on Crown Prince Naruhito's wedding
 * Two attacks near Aum's HQ
 * Two attacks on the National Diet
 * Two attacks on the Imperial Palace
 * Two attacks on the Tokyo Tower
 * November 18 - December 20, 1993: Daisaku Ikeda, 63
 * Unspecified date: Yoshinori Kobayashi, 40
 * 1994:
 * January: Kotaro Ochida
 * May 9: Taro Takimoto
 * June 27: The Matsumoto sarin gas attack
 * Sumiko Kouno, 46
 * Yutaka Kobayashi, 23
 * Yasumoto, 29
 * Five unnamed people killed
 * 200-500 unnamed people injured
 * Several unnamed judges
 * September 20: Shoko Egawa, 36
 * November 26: An unnamed man
 * December 2, Osaka: Noboru Mizuno, 83
 * December 12: Takahito Hamaguchi, 28
 * 1995:
 * January 4: Hiroyuki Nagaoka
 * Late January to February:
 * Ryuho Okawa, 38
 * Kiyoshi Kariya, 68
 * March 15: The attack in Kasumigaseki Station
 * March 19: Hiromi Shimada
 * March 20: The Tokyo subway attack
 * Twelve unnamed people killed
 * 4000+ unnamed people injured
 * March 30: NPA Chief Takaji Kunimatsu
 * May 3-5: The second attack on Shinjuku subway station
 * May 16:
 * Unnamed secretary
 * Yukio Aoshima, 63

On Criminal Minds
Asahara and some of his followers appeared in The Tribe (using stock footage) when the BAU commented that the episode's unsubs had surrendered their individual personalities to a group and adopted a shared mentality. In particular, they appeared when Morgan mentioned that the group might share a religious faith.

The Tokyo subway sarin gas attack served as a major inspiration for The Witness, in which a Los Angeles bus is attacked with sarin on the 20th anniversary of the Tokyo attack. Besides the attack, Asahara and Aum are also referenced directly (though not by name) because the BAU briefly considers them suspects in the new case. It is mentioned that Asahara is blind, wheelchairbound and in death row in Japan; and that Aum has split into two rival cults that have presence in southern California but have also denounced Asahara and the Tokyo attack. Although neither Asahara nor Aum are responsable for the bus attack in the episode, it is revealed that the real perpetrator is a homegrown cultist with an anti-government agenda, like Asahara, and that the bus attack is a prelude to a larger sarin gas attack against government personnel. This second attack fails partly because of conflict between the mastermind of the attack and the agent tasked to carry it out, loosely mirroring the aftermath of the Tokyo subway attack.

In addition, Aum and the Tokyo subway attack might have served as partial inspirations for The Forever People (a cult that practiced yoga and whose members wore white outfits just like Aum's members), and Chad Brown's intended bacteriological attack against the DC subway in Amplification, respectively.