Tokyo
The former leader of Aum Shinrikyo, the religious cult that released sarin gas into the Tokyo subway in 1995, was sentenced to death this week. Shoko Asahara was found guilty of directing the attack, which killed 12 people and sickened more than 5,000, in postwar Japan’s worst act of terrorism. “The defendant schemed to scatter large amounts of sarin in Tokyo to destroy the capital, build an Aum state, and rule as its king,” the judge said. The nearly blind, often incomprehensible Asahara built his cult around a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu teachings. By the mid-1990s, he had some 10,000 followers in Japan and more than 30,000 in Russia.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Why UK scientists are trying to dim the SunIn The Spotlight The UK has funded controversial geoengineering techniques that could prove helpful in slowing climate change
-
Gandhi arrests: Narendra Modi's 'vendetta' against India's oppositionThe Explainer Another episode threatens to spark uproar in the Indian PM's long-running battle against the country's first family
-
How the woke right gained power in the USUnder the radar The term has grown in prominence since Donald Trump returned to the White House
