Asahara, Shoko (1955–)

Shoko Asahara is the leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult and the mastermind of the sarin gas attack on the Japanese subway.

Asahara was born Chizuo Matsumoto, the son of a poor tatami mat maker, on March 2, 1955. Afflicted with glaucoma at birth, Asahara had only very limited vision in one eye, and his parents sent him to a school for the blind. There, his partial sight was an advantage, and Asahara used it to bully and extort money from his fellow students. An unpopular but ambitious child, he spoke to his classmates of his determination to become prime minister of Japan.

In the early 1980s, Asahara became deeply interested in spirituality. He devoted himself to both Hindu-style yoga and the daily meditation of Buddhism, and he dabbled in other religions. He was particularly intrigued by the Christian concept of Armageddon, a final battle between good and evil that will end the world as we know it. This mélange of Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian practices would become the primary ingredients of the Aum Shinrikyo cult's beliefs.

In 1984, Asahara and his wife set up a small storefront in Tokyo to teach yoga and hold religious seminars. In 1987, after a trip to India, Asahara began to claim he had attained Enlightenment—the first person to do so since the Buddha—and refer to himself as the “Venerable Master.” He also claimed that by following his teachings, true believers could acquire the ability to levitate, read minds, and teleport. Intrigued by these claims, Asahara's seminars began to attract adherents, and the Aum Shinrikyo, or “Supreme Truth,” cult was born.

Asahara preached that the world would soon come to an end, but by purifying themselves, cult members could save humanity from the coming horror. This message, coupled with Asahara's personal magnetism, proved an extremely potent attraction to many young Japanese, and graduates of Japan's top universities became members of the cult.

In 1990, Asahara and other cult leaders ran for seats in the Diet, or Japanese parliament. Their resounding defeat was a bitter surprise to Asahara, and his message began to change; instead of purifying themselves for the rest of humanity, it would now become the duty of the cult members to help destroy the impure and the sinful, starting with those who opposed Aum. By mid-1993, Aum had constructed an automatic weapons assembly plant and a chemical and biological weapons facility.

Asahara became increasingly paranoid, believing the CIA, the Japanese National Police Agency, and the U.S. government were attempting to kill him. In 1994 he ordered an assassination attempt on three judges whom he feared would decide a pending case against the cult. Cult members released poison gas in a residential neighborhood, killing seven people and injuring the judges. In March 1995, in an attempt to cripple the Japanese government, he ordered an attack on the Tokyo subway using sarin gas. Twelve people died in the attack, and thousands were injured. Evading capture for almost two months following the attack, Asahara was arrested on May 16, 1995.

Asahara was tried and sentenced to death in 2004, a ruling that Japan's top court upheld in 2006. However, legal proceedings continued as of 2010 and were expected to go on for several more years. Asahara continues to be regarded as the spiritual leader of Aum Shinrikyo, and cultists have purchased dozens of properties near the jail [Page 70]where Asahara is held, which they regard as a holy site.

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