30 Years After Sarin Attack / Time Has Passed But Fear Remains; Son Recalls Death of Father Who Was Abducted by Aum Supreme Truth Cult

By Yuri Ishihama / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

12:31 JST, March 12, 2025

Minoru Kariya, 65, revealed his father’s fears about the Aum Supreme Truth cult. His father Kiyoshi, then 68, the chief clerk of the Meguro Notary Office, was abducted by the cult’s followers in February 1995 and died after being given an anesthetic. Three weeks later, the sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system occurred. The following is excerpted from an interview by Yuri Ishihama, a Yomiuri Shimbun staff writer.

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Before the incident occurred, my father felt he was in danger. My father’s sister, who had donated tens of millions of yen to the cult, went into hiding, and the cult was looking for her, with an eye on her assets. My father handed me a note in an agitated state the day before he was abducted.

It read: “I’m afraid [the cult] will do something to me and my entire family. If something happens, I ask you to report it to the police and have them look for me.”

My father was abducted on a street in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, on Feb. 28, 1995. My wife called me at work and said, “Your father was kidnapped.”

My mind went blank, and I thought, “How could the cult go this far?”

I always believed that he was still alive.

However, that July, the Metropolitan Police Department informed me of his death, based on statements by the cult leaders. The police also told me his body had been burned and his ashes were dumped in Lake Motosu in Yamanashi Prefecture.

I knew it was hopeless. I was so shocked that I cried all night.

Instead of his ashes, we placed gravel, which we collected on the shore of the lake, and his favorite pair of glasses in an urn and held a funeral service. But because I never saw his body, I couldn’t believe that my father really died. I still feel that the truth surrounding my father’s death has not been revealed.

The cult’s successors are still active, including the main group, Aleph. I’m terrified that if my statements are considered “hostile,” they might harm me and my family. I don’t want an organization that follows in the footsteps of the cult to exist. As long as the group exists, someone might be harmed again.

It has been 30 years since the incident, but my fears have not disappeared.

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Abduction led to investigation

Kiyoshi Kariya’s death, which resulted from abduction and confinement, led to the Metropolitan Police Department investigating the facilities of the Aum Supreme Truth cult.

Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, the founder of the cult who was executed in 2018 at 63, ordered the members of the cult to kidnap Kariya. Asahara wanted to know the whereabouts of Kariya’s sister, so Kariya was given an anesthetic, putting him in a semiconscious state.

The anesthetic was administered by Tomomasa Nakagawa and Ikuo Hayashi. Kariya died of heart failure due to an overdose of the anesthetic at around 11 a.m. on March 1, 1995.

The police launched a simultaneous search of the cult’s facilities in the former village of Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi Prefecture, on March 22, two days after the sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system. Asahara was arrested two months later on May 16.

Minoru Kariya

Born in 1960, he joined the National Association of Crime Victims and Surviving Families, which was disbanded in 2018. He also worked to establish such systems as victim participation, which enables them to get involved in criminal proceedings. He is currently vice chair of its successor organization New National Association of Crime Victims and Surviving Families.