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🚇 Tokyo subway sarin attack

Tokyo sarin evidence and trial record

Arrests, chemical identification, prior Matsumoto linkage and judgments that left little mystery.

At a glance
Score intensity

Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.

Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology

Quick answers

What happened on 20 March 1995?

Aum Shinrikyo members released sarin on five Tokyo subway trains during the morning rush toward Kasumigaseki. Thirteen people were later counted as official dead (twelve at first; one added after a 2008 survey). Thousands sought medical care. This page does not describe the release method.

Who was convicted?

Asahara Shoko (Matsumoto Chizuo) and a group of senior members were convicted. Asahara’s death sentence became final in 2006; he was executed on 6 July 2018 with other Aum convicts. About 190 members were found guilty in related cases. Status is convicted, not unsolved.

Was this a war?

No. It was a domestic criminal and terrorism case against a civilian transport system. It belongs in an investigations family, not in a wars file.

What was Aum Shinrikyo?

A Japanese new religious movement founded in the 1980s by Matsumoto Chizuo, who took the name Asahara. It mixed Buddhist and Hindu language with apocalyptic teaching and, in its criminal core, organised murders and two sarin attacks. After 2000 the main successor body used the name Aleph.

What was the Matsumoto case?

On 27 June 1994, sarin was used in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, killing eight people. Once linked to Aum, it became the prior chemical crime in the same investigation family as 20 March 1995.

What laws changed?

Aum’s religious-corporation status was revoked. The Religious Corporations Act was revised in 1995. The 1999 Act on the Control of Organizations Which Have Committed Acts of Indiscriminate Mass Murder created ongoing surveillance of successor groups.

1995Tokyo, Japanconvicted

Authorship is among the best-evidenced facts in this archive.

The page records that chemistry was identified, not how an agent is prepared.

Exhibits

Exhibit A

20 March crime scenes

Physical

Five trains and station platforms produced a simultaneous incident map aimed at Kasumigaseki. Treatment numbers came from hospitals the same morning.

Exhibit B

Chemical identification

Forensic

Authorities identified sarin as the agent. The public record is the name of the substance and the fact of use, not a process.

Exhibit C

Kamikuishiki raids

Archive

Seized documents, equipment and later testimony tied the group’s facilities to the crime plan. Details that would instruct are omitted here.

Exhibit D

Matsumoto 1994 linkage

Inquiry

The prior sarin case became corroboration of group capability and intent once the investigations merged.

Exhibit E

Trial judgments 1996–2006

Testimony

Confessions, accomplice evidence and court findings named order-givers and participants across the Aum crime series.

Exhibit F

2008 death-toll survey

Document

A police compensation survey added a thirteenth official death, correcting first-week English wires that still say twelve.

How strong is the record?

Authorship
95

Convictions and executions rest on a thick trial record.

Agent identification
92

Sarin was identified; this page does not go further.

Prior-crime linkage
88

Matsumoto and Sakamoto are part of the same judged enterprise.

First-week death count
70

Twelve was incomplete; 13 (2008) and a 2020 fourteenth death show why figures must be dated.

The evidence file is strong enough that mystery scores belong near the floor.

Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.

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