Frustration that Sarin Attack Couldn’t Be Stopped Still Stings Local Activist Who Strove to Expose Aum Cult

By Sho Komine / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

15:00 JST, March 6, 2025

Seiichi Takeuchi had been outspoken in warning about the danger posed by the Aum Supreme Truth cult from soon after the group moved into the Fujigane district in the village of Kamikuishiki (now part of the town of Fujikawaguchiko) in Yamanashi Prefecture in around 1989. Despite his efforts, the cult committed the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system on March 20, 1995. Now age 96 and still living in the district, Takeuchi tears up when he recounts his frustration that he was unable to prevent that horrific attack. The following is excerpted from an interview by Sho Komine, Yomiuri Shimbun staff writer.

I was furious when I saw TV news reports about the sarin gas attack. I had been saying that Aum was dangerous, and wasn’t that exactly how it turned out?

Aum released sarin in an incident in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in June 1994. The following month, there was an outcry after a strange smell was detected near the Aum compound in the Fujigane district of Kamikuishiki. Why didn’t the police or the local authorities do anything about that?

I was frustrated that I was unable to stop Aum and prevent the subway sarin incident, and I’ll never forget that feeling.

I noticed something unusual in the village in about December 1989. Aum facilities had popped up here and there. I photographed wildflowers as a hobby, but I then began training my camera on Aum. I took about 1,000 photographs of Aum facilities under construction and other scenes. I even built a small watchhouse from which I could monitor the cult.

My wife was worried about me, but I had experienced the war and so I was prepared to die. In the end, I was also prepared to fight against Aum. My fear that I might be attacked vanished.

In January 1992, the then village mayor had a meeting with the cult’s leader, Chizuo Matsumoto (also known as Shoko Asahara), and demanded that Aum dismantle its facilities. I also attended this meeting.

I told Matsumoto, “I don’t oppose your doctrines, just your antisocial activities.” Matsumoto, who was executed at the age of 63, called me the “author of efforts to stir up anti-Aum sentiment among the village residents.” The discussion ended without any agreement.

A memorial monument has been erected on the site of what was the Aum facility where a follower was murdered, but it makes no mention of the cult’s name. What Aum did there should have been clearly recorded at that spot. I will donate my photographs to a local library one day, and I hope many people will see them. I have become frail in my old age, but I intend to continue talking about what Aum did for as long as I can.

Aum hostile toward neighbors

Disputes erupted between the Aum Supreme Truth cult and residents living near its facilities in various parts of Japan. Senior Aum officials were found guilty for their roles in an illegal land purchase in the village of Namino (now part of the city of Aso) in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1990, as the group established a presence there. A public movement opposed to Aum sprung up, and the village government fought a legal battle with the cult, demanding that the facility be removed. A settlement was reached in 1994, when the village paid Aum ¥920 million and the group vacated the land.

The construction of an Aum branch in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, also sparked public backlash. In June 1994, the cult, anticipating an unfavorable ruling in a civil lawsuit regarding the facility’s construction, sprayed sarin gas near a residential complex housing staff from the Nagano District Court’s Matsumoto branch. Eight residents died after inhaling the nerve gas.

Seiichi Takeuchi

Born in 1928. Takeuchi spearheaded activities opposing the Aum Supreme Truth cult as a representative of a committee on Aum affairs established in the Fujigane district of Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi Prefecture, in 1990. Served on the Kamikuishiki village council for seven years over two terms from 1999.