Death Penalty News

TOKYO—People whose lives were upended by the 1995 deadly nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by the Aum Shinrikyo cult marked the 31st anniversary on Friday, with their pain still unhealed despite growing worries about public memory of the event fading. Shizue Takahashi, who lost her husband, then a deputy stationmaster at Kasumigaseki Station, was among those who offered flowers and prayers. Station staff observed a moment of silence at around 8 a.m., when the worst terrorist attack on Japan occurred during the morning rush hour. "People who lost their family members as well as survivors continue to suffer to this date. Even after more than 30 years, the horror (of the attack) lingers," the 79-year-old said.

Japan on Wednesday marked the 29th anniversary of a fatal nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway system by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult. About 20 Tokyo Metro staff and relatives of victims held a moment of silence at 8 a.m. at Kasumigaseki subway station on the Hibiya line to remember two former colleagues who died in the attack.

A former senior AUM Shinrikyo member wrote a letter in English urging would-be terrorists not to carry out their planned attacks before he was executed in 2018 for his involvement in the cult's 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system. "I want 'future terrorists' to stop their attacks on their own will before they are called 'real ones,'" Tomomasa Nakagawa wrote while on death row, according to a copy of the letter made available to Kyodo News through his lawyer in early March. "I'm very very sure that they will fall into deep despair if they see the result of their attack," says the letter, which has no date or title. Nakagawa expressed remorse for the deadly sarin attack, saying, "I have gradually realized that our attack was extremely harmful to the victims and their families." "Nothing good has happened after the Subway attack," wrote Nakagawa, who was involved in the manufacturing of t...

TOKYO -- Japan on Friday marked the 25th anniversary of a fatal nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway. Tokyo Metro staff, relatives of victims and Transport Minister Kazuyoshi Akaba observed a moment of silence at 8 a.m. at Kasumigaseki subway station on the Hibiya Line to remember those who died in the attack. A moment of silence was observed at five other subway stations. In all, 14 people died and 6,300 were sickened after the Aum Shinrikyo cult released sarin in five subway trains during co-ordinated rush-hour attacks on March 20, 1995. Thirteen of those killed died by the end of 1996 while the 14th, Sachiko Asakawa, 56, who had been bedridden with severe brain damage following the attack, died on March 10 this year, Kyodo News reported. Thirteen Aum members, including cult leader Shoko Asahara, were executed in 2018, while others are serving prison sentences. The last fugitive was arrested in 2012. In what some believe was an attempt to divert the authorities t...

TOKYO -- July marks one year since the founder and 12 former senior members of the AUM Shinrikyo cult were executed after being convicted of murders, including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system. The executions could have sparked a vigorous debate on the death penalty in Japan, but they have not led to any major movement calling for its abolition despite international criticism, and polls suggest many Japanese are supportive of capital punishment. The unprecedented group execution of AUM founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto, and the former senior members occurred on July 6 and 26, 2018. It brought the total number of annual executions in Japan to 15 in 2018 from the previous year's four, according to the Justice Ministry. Human rights organization Amnesty International said Japan is among 56 countries and regions that conduct capital punishment while more than two-thirds of world states have abolished it in law or in pract...

On July 6, former Aum Shinrikyō cult leader Asahara Shōkō (Matsumoto Chizuo) was put to death, along with six of his senior followers. Executions of the remaining six death row prisoners in the case followed on July 26. Asahara never spoke during his trial, and now that he is dead the possibility of ever learning what motivated the cult’s attack on the Tokyo subway has gone with him. On the morning of July 6, Aum Shinrikyō cult leader Asahara Shōkō (originally named Matsumoto Chizuo), who was sentenced to death for his part in a series of deadly crimes including the sarin attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995, finally went to the gallows. Six other senior figures in the cult were executed the same day. The Ministry of Justice does not normally go out of its way to disclose details of executions, but on this day the ministry released the names of the executed prisoners to the press almost in real time. It was an exceptional case. Why did the ministry depart from its usual m...

Japan does not plan to review its death penalty anytime soon, Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa said Friday, despite her orders this month to execute all 13 AUM Shinrikyo cult members on death row sparking international criticism. "I think capital punishment is unavoidable for those who committed extremely grave and atrocious crimes, and the country's death penalty will not be re-examined immediately," Kamikawa told the press. All 13 former members of the doomsday cult who had been sitting on death row were executed on 2 occasions this month on Kamikawa's orders, prompting anti-death penalty campaigners to protest the massive enforcement of capital punishment in a short period of time. The number of executions carried out under Kamikawa has totaled 16, the highest number ordered by a single justice minister since Japan lifted its 40-month moratorium on capital punishment in 1993. ➤  FIND related content here AUM founder Shoko Asahara and 12 of his f...

Japan has executed the remaining members of a cult behind the deadly 1995 Sarin attack on the Tokyo subway. The six men were the last members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult on death row, and were executed on Thursday, the justice ministry said. Seven others responsible for the attack, including leader Shoko Asahara, were put to death earlier this month. The Sarin attack, Japan's worst terror incident, killed 13 people and injured thousands more. The cult was accused of several other murders and an earlier Sarin gas attack in 1994 which killed eight and left 600 injured. "The pain and anguish of the people who were killed and their families as well as of the survivors left with disabilities, was unimaginable," said justice minister Yoko Kamikawa at a news conference. Those put to death on Thursday included a key Aum Shinrikyo recruiter and cult members who released the nerve gas in train carriages, reported Japanese broadcaster NHK. ➤ Related con...