13 Facts About Kazuaki Okazaki

Kazuaki Okazaki was a Japanese convicted multiple murderer and former member of the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo who co-perpetrated the Sakamoto family murder and another murder in 1989.

Kazuaki Okazaki was tried and was sentenced to death for those crimes, for which he pleaded clemency.

Kazuaki Okazaki was reportedly physically abused as a child by his adoptive father in several occasions.

Kazuaki Okazaki graduated from school in 1979 and his wishes were to enroll at the Yamaguchi University but his fees to entrance into the university were refused and he later moved to Matsue, Shimane Prefecture.

Kazuaki Okazaki met Aum Shinrikyo leader Shoko Asahara in December of 1985 when Asahara held a conference in Kanagawa Prefecture and was reportedly overwhelmed by Asahara's "great inclusiveness, practicing energy, and humble attitude", prompting him to join the cult.

Kazuaki Okazaki did great in sales and became an active salesman of the published works by Asahara, to whom he showed greater admiration by the time.

Kazuaki Okazaki was later murdered in November 1989 by Okazaki and other members of the cult.

In February 1990, Kazuaki Okazaki took photos of the sites where the Sakamotos were allegedly buried and sent them to Asahara, blackmailing him of sending the photos to the police if he did not give him money for living expenses, to which Asahara initially refused, prompting Kazuaki Okazaki to send maps and other photographs to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police and Sakamotos' lawyer's office.

Several days later, Kazuaki Okazaki sent similar letters indicating the whereabouts of the corpses of Sakamoto and his wife to the police and the lawyers' office.

Kazuaki Okazaki was given about 8.3 million yen, and tried to stop a second wave of letters that he had sent to prefectural police.

Immediately after the Tokyo subway sarin attack, Kazuaki Okazaki turned himself in to the police out of fears of assassination by cult members and confessed to his crimes.

Kazuaki Okazaki asked for clemency due to the fact that he had confessed to the crimes and given himself up to police, aside of providing incriminatory evidence against the cult the court rejected this saying that Kazuaki Okazaki had done so in order to protect himself and avoid harm to himself.

The court, as well as the previous courts, highlighted that Kazuaki Okazaki had turned himself in to the police to "protect himself" from the cultists.