The story is a rush-hour crime on a civilian metro, investigated by police and tried in ordinary Japanese courts.
The wider story is a group already responsible for earlier murders and for Matsumoto, brought to book after the capital was hit.
Beats
- A group already in the file
By early 1995 Aum was under suspicion for Matsumoto and for the Sakamoto murders. English later called the subway attack a bolt from the blue. Japanese investigators did not.
- Monday, 20 March
Five trains, one government station cluster, a chemical agent already named in the 1994 case. Hospitals and stations filled. The death count began at twelve.
- Raids at Kamikuishiki
From 22 March police entered Aum sites. The investigation became a national manhunt and a documentary spectacle on Japanese television.
- Asahara arrested, 16 May
The founder’s arrest closed the “guru at large” phase. Charging and trial work then lasted years, not weeks.
- Sentence, wait, execution
Death sentences in the 2000s, finality in 2006 for Asahara, hangings in July 2018 after the last related appeal. The legal story is long on purpose.
The story ends in convictions and executions, not in an unknown perpetrator.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.