30 Years after Sarin Attack: Ensure Preventing Emergence of Another ‘Aum’

Editorial

15:36 JST, March 21, 2025

It has been 30 years since the sarin gas attack by the Aum Supreme Truth cult on the Tokyo subway system. Lessons learned from this incident causing so much harm must be utilized to ensure that another indiscriminate terrorist attack never happens again.

In the attack, Aum targeted the morning commute hour, killing 14 people and injuring more than 6,000 by releasing highly poisonous sarin gas on subway trains. Under the direction of cult founder and former death-row inmate Chizuo Matsumoto, Aum followers and others had been arming themselves before the crime was committed.

For a spate of crimes committed by the cult, including the murder of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family, as well as another sarin attack, which took place in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, 190 people — including the cult’s senior members — were found guilty. Thirteen members, including Matsumoto, were executed.

The harm inflicted by sarin is by no means a thing of the past. Some victims have retained numbness throughout their body and others are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Because this was an unprecedented incident, it is important for the government to understand in detail the current situation of victims and gather data on the toxicity of sarin and its persistent symptoms. This information will be needed to rescue victims should a similar attack ever occur again.

Aleph, a successor organization to Aum, was ordered to pay over ¥1 billion to victims and others in response to the incidents, but it has not complied with the order. The organization is suspected of concealing its assets by transferring them to affiliated corporations, according to the Public Security Intelligence Agency.

Victims and bereaved family members are aging. The government should support relief for them such as by seizing Aleph’s assets on their behalf and distributing the recovered funds to them.

Three successor organizations, including Aleph, have reportedly inherited the ideology of Matsumoto, who engaged in indiscriminate terrorist attacks. They allegedly have a total of 1,600 members.

The organizations are posing as yoga groups, among other things, to recruit young people and others who are unaware of their true nature, and about 70% of new members are said to be in their teens to 30s.

A sense of stagnation is being felt across Japanese society. With the start of the new school year and beginning period for many new company employees, some people must be having anxiety about what their new lives will be like. It is hoped that people will exercise caution around organizations that take advantage of this kind of mental condition.

Aum managed to expand significantly without being noticed in society, and it went on to commit heinous organized crimes. The emergence of another Aum must not be allowed.

The sarin gas attack on the subway system shocked the world as an unprecedented chemical terrorist attack. It became a turning point for the police to rethink their antiterrorism measures. Specialized units for nuclear, biological and chemical terrorism were also created.

With progress in science and technology, the risk of cyberterrorism has increased. The police and the Self-Defense Forces should strengthen the defense of society in anticipation of the various situations that could arise.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 21, 2025)