National Jul 7, 2019
A year after Chizuo Matsumoto, who headed the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, was hanged, his ashes remain at the Tokyo Detention House due to a family dispute.
National / Crime & Legal | FOCUS Jul 5, 2019
One year after 13 Aum Shinrikyo executions, scant debate over the death penalty in Japan
One year after the founder and 12 former senior members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult were executed for crimes including the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system, the debate over the death penalty remains a muted affair in Japan despite ...
National / Crime & Legal Apr 10, 2019
Tokyo court orders Aum Shinrikyo cult successor Aleph to pay ¥1 billion to victims of sarin attack
by Magdalena Osumi
Aleph, the main successor to the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, was ordered to pay more than ¥1 billion in damages to the victims of the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack.
National / History | Defining the Heisei Era Mar 30, 2019
Defining the Heisei Era: Japan deals with death, disasters and a feeling of insecurity
by Alex Martin
Post-disaster Tohoku has been rife with supernatural sightings. Hauntings have been reported at homes and workplaces, in ruined towns and on beaches devastated by giant tsunami that crashed into hundreds of kilometers of Japan's northeastern coast on March 11, 2011, following a magnitude 9 earthquake ...
National Mar 20, 2019
Japan marked the 24th anniversary Wednesday of a deadly sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway system carried out by the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which killed 13 people and injured more than 6,000 others. In a memorial ceremony at Kasumigaseki Station, relatives of the victims ...
National / Crime & Legal Jan 29, 2019
Letters containing suspected cyanide targeted 18 Japanese newspapers and drugmakers
Threatening letters with white powder suspected to be potassium cyanide were recently sent to a total of 18 companies, police sources said Tuesday. The letters include those delivered to the Tokyo headquarters of major dailies the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun, and offices of ...
National / Crime & Legal Jan 27, 2019
Threatening letters possibly containing toxic materials and demanding money sent to Japanese firms
Nine firms, including drugmakers and a newspaper publisher, have received threatening letters demanding money and containing a white powdery substance believed to be highly poisonous cyanide.
National / Media | BIG IN JAPAN Jan 5, 2019
Examining the strange synergy of Heisei Era crimes in Japan
by Mark Schreiber
There's a tendency in some societies to associate a period of history with the crimes that occurred therein. This is why we use expressions such as "crime of the century." And Japan? Crime certainly figures prominently in a 264-page mook published by Bungeishunju titled "Heisei ...
National Jan 1, 2019
The Japan Times newsroom selected the following domestic news stories as the most important of 2018.
National Dec 16, 2018
Executed former Aum member Yoshihiro Inoue left over 5,000 pages of personal notes
Former senior Aum Shinrikyo member Yoshihiro Inoue wrote personal notes until just before his execution in July, a nonfiction writer has said. The notes, written on 400-character manuscript paper, amounted to over 5,000 pages, Ryusho Kadota, who has been acquainted with Inoue's parents for 23 ...
National / Crime & Legal Oct 12, 2018
The family of a former Aum Shinrikyo cult member plans to file for a retrial after he was executed in July for his role in the deadly 1995 Tokyo subway nerve gas attack and other crimes committed by the group, a source with knowledge ...
Books Sep 22, 2018
Haruki Murakami's 'Underground' still holds chilling lessons about Japan
by Nicolas Gattig
Haruki Murakami's sole foray into journalism, "Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche," celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. What lessons does it hold today about where Japan has gone as a society?