Shoko Asahara, born Chizuo Matsumoto, was the founder and leader of the Japanese doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted of masterminding the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and was also involved in several other crimes. Asahara was sentenced to death in 2004, and his final appeal failed in 2011. In May 2012, his execution was postponed due to further arrests of Aum members. He was ultimately executed on July 6, 2018.
The Tokyo subway sarin attack was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated on 20 March 1995, in Tokyo, Japan, by members of the cult movement Aum Shinrikyo. In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on three lines of the Tokyo Metro during rush hour, killing 13 people, severely injuring 50, and causing temporary vision problems for nearly 1,000 others. The attack was directed against trains passing through Kasumigaseki and Nagatachō, where the Diet is headquartered in Tokyo.
Fumihiro Joyu is a former spokesperson and public relations manager of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, and served as the de facto chief of the organization from 1999 to 2007, when he split and formed a new group.
John Gordon Melton is an American religious scholar who was the founding director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and is currently the Distinguished Professor of American Religious History with the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he resides. He is also an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church and is a supporter of the controversial Remnant Fellowship Church.
The Matsumoto sarin attack was an attempted assassination perpetrated by members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Japan on the night of June 27, 1994. Eight people were killed and over 500 were harmed by sarin aerosol that was released from a converted refrigerator truck in the Kaichi Heights area. The attack was perpetrated nine months before the better-known Tokyo subway sarin attack.
On November 4, 1989, Tsutsumi Sakamoto, a lawyer working on a class action lawsuit against Aum Shinrikyo, a doomsday cult in Japan, was murdered, along with his wife Satoko and his child Tatsuhiko, by perpetrators who broke into his apartment. Six years later, the murderers were uncovered and it was established that they had been members of Aum Shinrikyo at the time of the crime.
Nobuyoshi Araki is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist professionally known by the mononym Arākī (アラーキー). Known primarily for photography that blends eroticism and bondage in a fine art context, he has published over 500 books.
Ryuho Okawa is the CEO and founder of the Happy Science religious organization and the Happiness Realization Party in Japan. He is also chairman of two companies affiliated with the organization, Newster Production and ARI Production.
Tomomitsu Niimi was an Aum Shinrikyo member convicted for his participation in the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway and a number of other crimes. He was Aum's "minister of internal affairs".
Tatsuya Mori is a Japanese documentary filmmaker, TV director and author.
Kōda Shigeyuki, pen name Kōda Rohan, was a Japanese author. His daughter, Aya Kōda, was also a noted author who often wrote about him.
Hiroshi Miyazawa was the governor of Hiroshima Prefecture from 1973 to 1981 and justice minister from 1995 to 1996.
Kaboom is a 2010 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Gregg Araki and starring Thomas Dekker, Juno Temple, Haley Bennett, and James Duval.
Atsushi Sakahara is a film director, writer, and producer. He is a former advertising executive who survived the 1995 sarin gas attacks in Tokyo, which led to his later film work. He produced the 2001 Short Film Palme d'Or winning Bean Cake, directed by David Greenspan. He directed a short film, Don't Call Me Father. in 2012. One of producers for the film was Paul Milgrom, who won Nobel Prize in Economics in 2020. In 2015 he began to work on what would become Me and the Cult Leader, a film following his pursuit of truth and justice by talking and travelling with current Aleph executive Araki Hiroshi. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in engineering at Utsunomiya University's school of regional development and creativity. He is also known as an inventor of the SA method, which is a unique idea-generation technique and application. He is a member of The Japan P.E.N Club.
Aleph, formerly Aum Shinrikyo, is a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been responsible for the Matsumoto sarin attack the previous year.
Events in the year 1995 in Japan. It corresponds to Heisei 7 (平成7年) in the Japanese calendar.
Sachiko Eto, known as The Drumstick Killer, was a Japanese cult leader and serial killer, responsible for six murders in Sukagawa City between 1994 and 1995.
The Story of Kamikuishiki Village is a satirical Japanese doujin resource management strategy game developed by HappySoft and published by Aum Soft that was released for PC-98 on June 29, 1995. Kamikuishiki Village satirises the Aum Shinrikyo cult and the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack orchestrated by the cult; a common misconception is that the game was produced by the cult as propaganda, whereas The Story of Kamikuishiki Village actually portrays Aum and the sarin gas attack negatively, mocking its members and showing footage of 'humiliating' media coverage.
Me and the Cult Leader (Aganai) is a 2020 Japanese documentary film. The film is follows the director, Atsushi Sakahara, a victim of the 1995 Tokyo Subway Sarin Gas Attack, and Araki Hiroshi, a current executive member of the doomsday cult Aleph behind the attack as they travel to their hometowns in the Kyoto prefecture. It premiered at the Sheffield Doc Fest as part of its Ghosts and Apparitions strand.
