27 Facts About Shoko Asahara

Shoko Asahara, born Chizuo Matsumoto, was a Japanese Cult leader and terrorist who founded and led the Japanese doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo.

Shoko Asahara was convicted of masterminding the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and was involved in several other crimes.

Shoko Asahara was ultimately executed along with other senior members of Aum Shinrikyo on July 6,2018.

Shoko Asahara had infantile glaucoma from birth, which made him lose all sight in his left eye and go partially blind in his right eye at a young age.

Shoko Asahara was enrolled in a school for the blind when he was 6 years old since he could not continue the family trade.

Shoko Asahara graduated in 1973 and applied to Faculty of Law of University of Tokyo, but was rejected.

Shoko Asahara then turned to the study of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, which were common careers for the blind in Japan, and he established a Chinese medicine shop outside Tokyo.

Shoko Asahara married the following year and eventually fathered six children, the eldest of whom was born in 1978.

Shoko Asahara dedicated his free time to the study of various religious concepts, starting with Chinese astrology and Taoism.

Later, Shoko Asahara practiced Western esotericism, yoga, meditation, esoteric Buddhism, and esoteric Christianity.

Shoko Asahara later claimed to his followers that he managed to achieve Enlightenment, met Shiva, and was given a "special mission" to preach "real Buddhism" in Japan.

The Dalai Lama later distanced himself from Shoko Asahara and said that he had met "a strange Japanese man", but denied having any significant relationship with him.

Shoko Asahara returned permanently to Japan in 1987 and assumed the title sonshi meaning "guru" before stating that he had mastered meditation to such an extent that he could lift himself with his mind.

Shoko Asahara promoted this achievement with pamphlets produced by his own publishing company, but outside a few Japanese periodicals with an occult subject, little publicity was achieved.

Shoko Asahara chased them for about 100 yards before collapsing, dying ten days later without coming out of a deep coma.

Shoko Asahara's corpse was destroyed in a microwave-powered incinerator and the remnants disposed of in Lake Kawaguchi.

Prosecutors alleged Shoko Asahara was tipped off about this and that he ordered the Tokyo subway attack to divert police.

Prosecutors allege that Shoko Asahara was tipped off by an insider about planned police raids on cult facilities and ordered an attack in central Tokyo to divert police attention away from the group.

On June 21,1995, Shoko Asahara acknowledged that in January 1994 he ordered the killing of a sect member, Kotaro Ochida, a pharmacist at an Aum hospital.

Fumihiro Joyu, one of the few senior leaders of the group under Shoko Asahara who did not face serious charges, became official head of the organization in 1999.

Shoko Asahara faced 27 counts of murder in 13 separate indictments.

The prosecution argued that Shoko Asahara gave orders to attack the Tokyo Subway to "overthrow the government and install himself in the position of Emperor of Japan".

The prosecution accused Shoko Asahara of masterminding the Matsumoto incident and the Sakamoto family murder.

However, he communicated with the staff at his detention facility, which convinced the examiner that Shoko Asahara was maintaining his silence out of free will.

In June 2012, Shoko Asahara's execution was postponed due to arrests of several fugitive Aum Shinrikyo members.

Shoko Asahara was executed by hanging at the Tokyo Detention House on July 6,2018, along with six other cult members.

In 2021, the Supreme Court of Japan ordered Shoko Asahara's remains to be released to his second daughter, which was affirmed by the Tokyo District Court in 2024.