Crime & Courts

Public Security Intelligence Chief: Aum Not Thing of Past; Agency to Make Efforts to Rid Insecurity

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Investigators from the Public Security Intelligence Agency enter an Aleph-related facility for an on-site inspection Feb. 13.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:57 JST, March 21, 2025

Thirty years have passed since the 1995 sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway train, but the head of the Public Security Intelligence Agency (PSIA) says the problem of the Aum Supreme Truth cult is not a thing of the past.

“The problem is ongoing today,” said Takeru Tanojiri, the director-general of the agency. “We will make efforts to rid the feeling of insecurity from the victims, surviving families and the Japanese public.”

After the attack, the cult was broken up, but splinter groups Aleph, Yamada-ra no Shudan and Hikari no Wa are still active today.

The PSIA is concerned that these groups are influenced by the ideas of Aum founder Chizuo Matsumoto, who masterminded the attack and was executed at the age of 63. In such a circumstance, they would possess the same dangerous nature the cult possessed when it committed indiscriminate mass murder.

“The danger they pose is not widely recognized,” Tanojiri said, expressing a sense of urgency. He added that the agency would rigorously surveil the three groups’ activities.