The subway morning is one date. The investigation file starts earlier and ends in 2018.
English timelines that begin on 20 March miss why police already had a suspect group.
Timeline
- Aum founded and expands
Matsumoto Chizuo’s movement takes the Aum name, gains religious-corporation status and builds communes.
- Sakamoto family murders
Lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife and child are killed. The crime is later tied to Aum and becomes part of the same trial universe.
- Matsumoto sarin
Eight people die in a residential chemical attack later attributed to Aum — the first dated sarin crime in the file.
- Tokyo subway attack
Five trains are attacked during the morning rush. Twelve deaths are first announced; the official count later becomes 13.
- Nationwide raids
Police enter Aum facilities, including Kamikuishiki, and begin mass arrests.
- Asahara arrested
The founder is taken into custody. Religious-corporation status is later revoked.
- Religious Corporations Act revised
Parliament strengthens scrutiny of religious juridical persons after the Aum case.
- Organisations-control law
A statute aimed at groups that have committed indiscriminate mass murder creates ongoing surveillance powers.
- Asahara sentenced, appeals end
A Tokyo court imposes death in 2004; the Supreme Court rejects the final appeal in 2006.
- Executions begin
Asahara and six other Aum convicts are executed; further hangings follow that month after the last related appeal.
After July 2018 the lead defendants are dead. Successor-group watch is the remaining state file.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.