The trial of Makoto Hirata, a former leading member of the deadly AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult, has started in Tokyo District Court.

Prosecutors are seeking the death sentence for Hirata, who is charged for his involvement in the 1995 abduction and confinement of Kiyoshi Kariya, a notary official who later died after being injected with an anesthetic drug by AUM members.

Prosecutors say they used the anesthetics on Kariya to get him to talk about his sister, who escaped from the group after being pressed to donate her land.

Hirata, who joined the cult in 1987 at the age of 22, turned himself in to police in January, 2011, after having been on the run for nearly 17 years.

He maintains he only drove the vehicle involved in the abduction, and claims he did not have prior knowledge of the intent to kidnap Kariya.

Hirata also charged with involvement in the firebombing of a Tokyo condominium.

Prosecutors say the bombing was meant to prevent the place from being raided by the police.

Hirata's lawyers say he got interested in spirituality as a result of his disillusionment with bubble-era Japan's dogged pursuit of economic gain.

They explain that, just like AUM Shinrikyo's other members, Hirata was so fascinated with charisma of AUM Shinrikyo leader Shoko Asahara that he eventually decided total submission to the guru was the only way to attain peace of mind.[ref]Asahara had taught that the world would be destroyed at the end of the (now last) century in a nuclear catastrophe, and that only those why had joined AUM would be spared.[/ref]

Seven AUM members who are on death-row -- including Yoshihiro Inoue, Tomomasa Nakagawa, and Yasuo Hayashi -- have been summoned to testify during the trial.

Six months after Hirata turned himself in, the last two ex-AUM members on the Japan's most wanted list, Naoko Kikuchi, 42, and Katsuya Takahashi, 55, were arrested separately in June 2012.

Closure and Awareness

AUM Shinrikyo's many victims hope the trials of these last three cult members will bring closure.

Meanwhile cult experts hope the trial will raise awareness of the potential dangers of joining cults.

The crimes of AUM Shinrikyo

During rush hour, On the morning of March 20, 1995, members of AUM Shinrikyo launched a deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.

13 people died, and 6,373 people needed hospital treatment. The attack was part of a series of crimes committed by the cult.[ref]See also: Aum's history of violence, and Violations and violence[/ref]

Japan's National Police Agency says that a total of 6,583 people fell victim to Aum Shinrikyo.

Nearly 19 years after the gas attack thirteen Aum Shinrikyo cult members are on death row, including the group's leader, Shoko Asahara.

In January 2,000 Aum Shinrikyo changed its name to Aleph.

The cult remains under surveillance, as does an offshoot named Hikari no Wa, which was established in 2007.

Membership in Aleph and other AUM Shinrikyo splintergroups has been growing in recent years, according to police and public security authorities.

Many of the cult members remain loyal to Shoko Asahara.

Full story: AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult member on trial

… Cult formerly known as Aum Shinrikyo wins defamation suit

• The Tokyo District Court ordered the Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Tuesday to pay damages and apologize to the Aleph religious group, previously known as Aum Shinrikyo, for releasing an investigative report about the 1995 attempted murder of the national police chief, Takaji Kunimatsu, that suggested the cult was behind the attack.
• Japanese newsagency Kyodo says
  

  The Tokyo police released the investigative report on March 30, 2010, after the statute of limitation on the attack ran out. It said the attack was an act of terrorism by Aum members. The police put an outline of the report on its website for about one month.

  In Tuesday's decision, presiding Judge Hiroshi Ishii said the report was illegal and criticized it for running counter to the principle of innocent until proven guilty.

  The Tokyo police argued during the trial that the report did not defame Aleph because it is a different group from Aum. The court ruled, however, that Aleph continues to be generally regarded as Aum and that the report was damaging to the group.

  The trial did not address whether the content of the report was factual or whether there was sufficient cause to suspect Aum's involvement.

• According to the Asahi Shimbun
  

  In its decision, the court acknowledged that police did not make a pointed reference to Aleph in the report. But it sided with Aleph in the defamation claim, citing two instances.

  It said right after the police report was released, Aleph ran into local opposition over its plan to build its facility in Tokyo's Adachi Ward.

  It also said that Aleph was recognized as "in a condition under the absolute control of Matsumoto" when it came under surveillance.

  The court said these instances were grounds for judging that Aum Shinrikyo and Aleph were effectively perceived as identical and thus the police report undermined Aleph's reputation.

  The court also noted that the report received wide media coverage and could be used in the future as the basis for argument that cult members were the culprits.

• Aum Shinrikyo is best known for its March 20, 1995 terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway system, during which cult members released nerve gas.
• Prior to that attack, with which the cult hoped to instigate Armageddon, Aum Shinrikyo already had a lengthy history of violence
• After the nerve gas attack, Aum lost its official status as a religious organization
• Faced with mounting government and police scrutiny, in January, 2000, Aum Shinrikyo claimed to distance itself from its founder, cult leader Shoko Asahara (real name: Chizuo Matsumoto), who is on death row.

  The group also changed its name to Aleph, after the Sanskrit for 'unlimited expansion.'

• The cult remains under surveillance, as does an offshoot named Hikari no Wa, which was established in 2007.
• Japan's National Police Agency says that a total of 6,583 people fell victim to the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system and seven other crimes committed by Aum Shinrikyo.
• In June 2012 police in Japan arrested the last Aum Shinrikyo fugitive.
• Thirteen Aum Shinrikyo cult members are on death row, including Shoko Asahara.
  
• Last December the Japanese government's Public Security Intelligence Agency (PSIA) released a report that shows Aleph and Hikari no Wa gained a record high number of new followers in 2012: 255 members.

  Japan Daily Press wrote

  The largest increase in demographics is those aged 35 or under, making up 22% of new followers at the end of 2008, but now at 32%. Those in their 20s specifically have risen from 7% to 19% over the same four years. Aleph has been found to be entering university campuses in April, the beginning of Japan's school year, and again in May and November, when festivals are often held. They then put up flyers for their organization on bulletin boards meant for school clubs without permission.

  The PSIA is concerned over these actions as the posters don't specifically have the Aleph name or reveal the group's religious nature. While the number of new members is increasing, the total follower count shows no drastic changes as people regularly quit the cult as well.

• Followers of Aleph reportedly still worship Shoko Asahara.

Full story: Aum Shinrikyo cult successor Aleph wins damages, government apology

Police in Japan are trying to decide how to divide the $250,000 reward for information that led to the capture of the final suspects in the 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway.

Aum Shinrikyo cult member Katsuya Takahashi was reported to police by a staff member at a Manga café.

He was arrested just two weeks after police nabbed Naoko Kikuchi -- another high-profile Aum cult fugitive.

Kikuchi was arrested following what local media have said was a tip off from a relative of her boyfriend.

AFP says

Police authorities and a group of retired investigators had put up two lots of 10 million yen ($125,000) for anyone who tipped them off over where they could find two of the country's most wanted fugitives.

The news service notes that Kikuchi's lover, reportedly aware of her status as one of Japan's most wanted, was arrested on suspicion of harbouring a criminal suspect.

Police are reportedly studying whether the tipster qualifies for the 10 million yen bounty, which cannot be given to an accomplice or to someone who committed a different crime to receive the information, according to police.

Kikuchi and Takahashi are suspected of murder and other charges in connection with the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 13 people and sickened more than 6,000.

Kikuchi has told police she no longer believes the teachings of Aum Shinrikyo cult leader Chizuo Matsumoto, better known as Shoko Asahara.

But Takahashi still reportedly still worships the cult leader and his teachings.

Money Troubles

The Asahi Shimbun reports that the two cult members

were settling comfortably into relatively normal lives, but things began to unravel after one of them decided to hook up with a new boyfriend, police sources said.

Following their split, the two former cultists--Naoko Kikuchi, 40, and Katsuya Takahashi, 54--bickered over money and were finally arrested earlier this month after 17 years on the run.

But through it all, the two persistently tried to lead ordinary lives. They have told police that this goal was the reason they continued their flight from authorities for so long.

Fresh Warrants

As expected Kikuchi on Monday was served fresh arrest warrants Sunday for murder and attempted murder between 1994 and 1995.

While Aum Shinrikyo is best known for its deadly attack on the Tokyo subway system, the cult has a history of violence, and has been involved in many other crimes.

Kyodo writes that Kikuchi, who allegedly produced VX with fellow cultist Masami Tsuchiya, 47, who is on a death row,

is suspected of murdering Osaka salaryman Tadahito Hamaguchi, 28, by spraying him with VX, a toxic nerve gas, on a street in the city in December 1994 on the orders of Hideo Murai, one of the cult's top officials at the time.

Through January 1995, she allegedly attempted to kill two other people using the same method, including Hiroyuki Nagaoka, 74, who chairs a group representing victims of the cult's crimes, according to the police. [...]

She also been served a warrant for sending a parcel bomb that severely injured a Tokyo Metropolitan Government official when it was opened.

Facial Aging

Meanwhile The Japan Times reports that

The National Police Agency has enlisted science and 3-D imaging in an effort to predict facial changes in long-term fugitives.

The agency embarked on the project after receiving complaints that the recently arrested Aum Shinrikyo fugitives, including Katsuya Takahashi, 54, who had been on the run for 17 years, looked much different from the mug shots police had plastered on their aging wanted posters.

Full story: Aum Shinrikyo: facial recognition, reward and fresh charges

Police in Japan are poised to serve a fresh arrest warrant against former AUM Shinkrikyo member Naoko Kikuchi on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in connection with three VX nerve agent attacks in 1994 and 1995, it has been learned.

The Mainichi says

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) plans to serve the arrest warrant on Kikuchi, 40, on June 24, when the limit for detaining her in connection with a probe into AUM's sarin gas attacks expires.

Meanwhile the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors' Office is set to shelve action again Kikuchi over the sarin attacks, which were carried out on Tokyo's subway system in 1995.

The Daily Yomiuri reports

Kikuchi, 40, is suspected of spraying VX gas on a 28-year-old man on a street in Osaka on Dec. 12, 1994, as she believed him to be a spy. The man died 10 days later.

She is also alleged to have used VX gas in the same month to try to kill a man who was sheltering an Aum deserter and another man the next month who headed a group supporting victims of the cult.

The VX gas cases were followed by the sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway system on March 20, 1995. Thirteen people were killed and more than 6,200 sickened.

According to the Japan Times

Kikuchi was arrested June 3 after 17 years on the run, wanted for allegedly playing a role in the production of the nerve agent used in the subway attack.

While on the loose, she periodically lived with fellow Aum fugive Katsuya Takahashi, 54, in an apartment in Kawasaki for about 10 years from 1997 and recently with Hiroto Takahashi, 41, no relation to the fugitive, in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture. The man was arrested for harboring Kikuchi.

Wanted as an alleged wheel man in the subway attack and for other Aum crimes, Katsuya Takahashi was arrested last week after also being on the lam for 17 years.

Kikuchi was also served a warrant in connection with an explosive that was sent to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. A clerk who opened the package was seriously injured.

Meanwhile The Yomiuri Shimbun reports that

Former Aum Supreme Truth cult member Katsuya Takahashi has said he heard one of the cult's leaders order members to create "a commotion" on the eve of the March 20, 1995, sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, according to investigative sources.

Takahashi, 54, was arrested Friday in Tokyo on suspicion of murder and attempted murder after 17 years as a fugitive.

He also thought he heard Yoshihiro Inoue, 42, currently on death row, tell some cult members, including Takahashi, to "scatter 'chacha,'" the source said.

"Chacha" was a term for sarin gas used among the cult members, they said.

The Metropolitan Police Department is questioning Takahashi in the belief that he knew in advance of the sarin gas attack.

According to the sources, Takahashi belonged to the cult's self-styled "information ministry," of which Inoue was the head. Takahashi was one of Inoue's close aides, they said.

Full story: Ex-AUM cult member faces fresh arrest warrant over nerve agent attacks

Katsuya Takahashi, the Aum Shinrikyo member who was arrested Friday in Tokyo after 17 years on the run, sits in his police cell in the lotus position and chants a cult mantra, according to investigative sources.

The The Yomiuri Shimbun says that

Takahashi, under arrest for his role in the cult's deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995, uses specific terms associated with the cult to answer investigators, including such remarks as "I was arrested because of karma," according to police.

The word karma, meaning cosmic justice, was commonly used in the cult's religious training.

Takahashi sometimes performs a typical cult ritual called "ritsui reihai," according to the sources. This practice of prayer, also employed by Tibetan Buddhists, involves a person throwing his body forward to the ground then resuming a standing position.

The Metropolitan Police Department is questioning Takahashi under the belief he still follows cult founder Chizuo Matsumoto, 57, a convict on death row. [...]

Takahashi has not expressed any remorse toward the gas attack victims, according to the police.

Cult leader Chizuo Matsumoto is better known as Shoko Asahara.

Takahashi is suspected of transporting an Aum member to a railway station in the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that left 13 people dead and thousands sickened.

Kyodo says he has also been implicated in some of the cult's other crimes, including murders, a kidnapping and a mail bomb attack.

The Asahi Shimbun says that when he was arrested Takahashi had more than 10 books published by the doomsday cult in his possession.

He also had cassette recordings of teachings by Aum guru Chizuo Matsumoto and photos of the bearded leader, who is one of 13 cultists on death row. [...]

Aside from works published by the cult, his collection included about 15 other books dealing with religion.

"Initiation," written by Matsumoto, 57, also known as Shoko Asahara, was part of the collection, Tokyo police said.

The Yomiuri Shimbun writes that Naoko Kikuchi, 40, another former Aum member arrested earlier this month, reportedly told police that Takahashi, 54, conducted cult rituals at his hideouts as late as around 2006.

The Mainichi quotes an unnamed investigator as saying, ""If we cannot undo Takahashi's mind control, he will not help in uncovering the truth of the (AUM Shinrikyo) incidents."

The paper also says

It has been learned that Takahashi reportedly told investigators, "The day before the sarin incident, at a hideout in Shibuya, I heard that Yoshihiro Inoue (currently on death-row) instruct those who were to carry it out, 'Quickly spread the sarin.'" At the time, Inoue referred to sarin by code words like "wizard," and Takahashi has said, "I didn't know what the code words referred to. The liquid I was given was brown, so I thought that it wasn't sarin."

According to The Yomiuri Shimbun Takahasi

admitted driving the car to a subway station in central Tokyo on March 20, 1995, investigative sources with the Metropolitan Police Department said.

Although he saw "something containing brownish liquid" in the car, he had no idea the material was sarin, they cited Takahashi as saying.

At the time of the crime, Takahashi was a close aide to Yoshihiro Inoue, 42, chief of Aum's self-styled "intelligence ministry." Inoue is now on death row.

In spite of Takahashi's statement, the MPD believes he was in a position to know the material was sarin prior to the subway gassing incident, the sources said.

Kyodo reports that the cult member was turned over to public prosecutors Sunday on charges of conspiring with the cult's leader over the deadly 1995 Tokyo subway gas attack, police said.

Full story: Captured cult member still worships Aum Shinrikyo guru

When the Supreme Court in mid-December rejected an Aum Shinrikyo convict's objection to the finalization of his death sentence, it almost closed the curtain on the cult responsible for the deadliest crimes in modern Japanese history, including the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.

But, says the Japan Times,

with the last gas attack fugitive, Katsuya Takahashi, in custody, the courts will inevitably revisit the atrocities committed by the cultists, whose spiritual pursuits under guru Shoko Asahara claimed 29 lives and left more than 6,500 people injured.

Aum's critics say the trio of recently captured fugitives — Takahashi, 54, Makoto Hirata, 46, and Naoko Kikuchi, 40 — will not shed dramatic new light on the cult and its crimes because most of the pieces of the puzzle have already been put together via the trials of the other cultists.

But experts expressed hope that revisiting Aum's mayhem will raise public awareness of the potential dangers of joining cults.

"We need to analyze why young people were attracted to that group, and how to prevent others from joining them. Otherwise, even if the Aum trials are over, new groups can emerge and attract young people and the same things can be repeated," said Yoshifu Arita, a Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker who closely followed the Aum trials as a freelance journalist. [...]

In the meantime, authorities may have to postpone the hangings of the condemned cultists because they could be needed as witnesses in the trials of the trio. Legal analysts say the pretrial process for determining the points of argument could take months or even years. [...]

Aum splintered and changed its name to Aleph in 2000 but continues to operate under Asahara's teachings. A report by the Public Safety Intelligence Agency shows there are some 1,500 Aleph followers in Japan and it gained 200 new ones last year.

The rise in numbers shows more people, especially in the younger generation, are not aware of what Aum did in the past and find its brand of spiritualism attractive, Arita of DPJ said. He stressed the need to educate people on the dangers of joining cults, since anyone faces the risk of being subtly brainwashed.

In a separate report the Japan Times writes

The final three Aum Shinrikyo fugitives are now in custody, but groups working to rescue brainwashed followers from its main successor group are continuing their fight against the cult.

In a campaign to save the roughly 1,500 disciples who remain loyal to the cult, which changed its name to Aleph in 2000, the groups are calling on the former fugitives and other ex-members to warn the young about the risks it still poses.

"My goal is to make every single Aum follower leave the cult. . . . I've got to do something about this problem" while I'm still strong enough, Hiroyuki Nagaoka, the 74-year-old head of a group of relatives of former or current cult members, told The Japan Times on Friday.

Nagaoka said he believes Katsuya Takahashi, the last Aum fugitive who was arrested Friday, is still partly under the influence of Aum guru Shoko Asahara, currently on death row, and will require counseling to start viewing the world through his own eyes. [...]

Experts say that due to Asahara's demise many people now dismiss the possibility of falling under the influence of a cult, and warn the younger generation is especially at risk as it did not directly experience the shock waves generated by the Tokyo sarin gas attack 17 years ago.

They say anyone can fall prey to cults such as Aleph and that its members are actively looking for new recruits on university campuses. [...]

According to a 2011 report by the Public Safety Intelligence Agency, Aleph conducted an aggressive recruitment drive last year, covertly seeking new members at universities by infiltrating cultural societies or using social networking services.

More than 200 new members joined the cult last year — roughly double the number in 2010 — and 62 percent were younger than 35, the report said.

See Also

About Aum Shinrikyo

Aum Shinrikyo may be gone in name but guru still has following
How cult apologists, including J. Gordon Melton and James R. Lewis, defended Aum Shrinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo may be gone in name but guru still has following
Research resources on AUM shinrikyo

About Cults

Who Joins Cults, And Why?
Today's Cults: You Might Not Recognize Them
When Spirituality Goes Awry: Students in Cults
Cult FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions About Cults

About Cult Experts

Need a cult expert? Here's how to avoid the bad apples

Full story: Cult experts hope pending Aum Shinrikyo cult trial will raise awareness

Police in Japan on June 15 arrested the last fugitive from the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult on suspicion of murder in connection with the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.

The Asahi Shimbun reports

The suspect, Katsuya Takahashi, 54, was caught in the Kamata area of Tokyo's Ota Ward after spending 17 years on the run.

His identity was confirmed through fingerprints and his own admission, police said.

The Associated Press says

Takahashi, who had been cult guru Shoko Asahara's bodyguard, was on Japan's most wanted list for his suspected role in the sarin gas attack on Tokyo subways, which killed 13 people and injured more than 6,000. He allegedly helped one of the members who released sarin on one of the subway lines run away from the scene.

He is also suspected in a 1995 cult-related kidnapping-murder, as well as a mail bomb that injured a Tokyo city employee.

According to The New York Times

Investigators arrested the suspect, Katsuya Takahashi, 54, near an Internet cafe in central Tokyo after receiving a tip that a man resembling the fugitive had been spotted there, according to the public broadcaster NHK. Mr. Takahashi was arrested on suspicion of murder.

His arrest came less than two weeks after Naoko Kikuchi, who is suspected of being an accomplice, was taken into custody in a Tokyo suburb. The police had said that information gathered during her arrest had put them on the trail of Mr. Takahashi.

Both suspects had managed to elude the authorities for 17 years, though their photographs appeared on wanted posters across Japan. The manhunt gained traction after another member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult wanted in connection with the attack, Makoto Hirata, turned himself in to the police five months ago.

The guardian writes

Takahashi's arrest will close a significant chapter in the Aum saga but it will be some time before Japan fully recovers from the national trauma created by the gas attacks.

Thirteen Aum followers, including its founder, Shoko Asahara, are awaiting execution, while the trials of Kikuchi, Takahashi and Makoto Hirai, who turned himself in on New Year's Eve, will serve as reminders of the violent cult that sought confrontation with the government as a preface to the end of civilisation.

AP notes

Aum Shinrikyo had amassed an arsenal of chemical, biological and conventional weapons in anticipation of an apocalyptic showdown with the government. Nearly 200 of its members have been convicted in the 1995 attack and dozens of other crimes. Thirteen, including Asahara, are on death row. [...]

The cult, split into two groups — each renamed Aleph and the Circle of Rainbow Light — once had 10,000 members in Japan and claimed another 30,000 in Russia. It still has hundreds of members.

The cult is under police surveillance and its current leaders have publicly disavowed Asahara.

Japan's National Police Agency says that a total of 6,583 people fell victim to the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system and seven other crimes committed by Aum Shinrikyo.

Several splinter groups remain active and are showing signs of loyalty to guru Shoko Asahara.

- Compiled by Religion News Blog

How cult apologists, including J. Gordon Melton and James R. Lewis, defended Aum Shrinrikyo
Final police tally confirms 6,583 fell victim to 8 Aum-related crimes
How AUM Shinrikyo justified violence
Life inside AUM Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo may be gone in name but guru still has following
Ex-prosecutor: 'Aum made preparations to topple the government'
Research resources on AUM shinrikyo

Full story: Tokyo police arrest last Aum Shinrikyo fugitive

Japanese police are closing in on the last remaining fugitive wanted in connection with the deadly 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway, with detectives trailing just hours behind the last known whereabouts of Katsuya Takahashi.

The Wall Street Journal reports

The search for Mr. Takahashi, a former member of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult that was behind the attacks, has accelerated practically overnight after the arrest of another Aum fugitive, Naoko Kikuchi, earlier this week. Information from Ms. Kikuchi put police hot on Mr. Takahashi's trail, which had gone largely cold since the late 1990s. Mr. Takahashi has been on the run for 17 years.

Japan's Mainichi Shimbun says Takahashi

fled his hideout in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on the afternoon of June 4, only about four hours before police found and raided it, investigative sources said.

Takahashi's quick decision to flee the dormitory of a construction company he had worked for came hours after the arrest on the evening of June 3 of another AUM fugitive, 40-year-old Naoko Kikuchi.

Using clues based on statements from 41-year-old Hiroto Takahashi, who was arrested on June 4 on suspicion of harboring Kikuchi, and other sources, police came to find out that Katsuya Takahashi, using the pseudonym "Shinya Sakurai," had lived in an apartment in Kawasaki's Saiwai Ward. Investigators rushed to the apartment before dawn on June 4, but they found out that Takahashi had already moved out around October last year.

After tracing Katsuya Takahashi's whereabouts thereafter, investigators found out that the former cultist was living in the dormitory of a construction company he worked for in Kawasaki's Kawasaki Ward. Investigators arrived at the dormitory at around 6:30 p.m. on June 4, but they failed to find Takahashi there.

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) announced on June 6 that based on DNA analysis of samples taken from cotton swabs left in a trash can in his room at the dormitory it was confirmed that the man who had been hiding in Kawasaki was Katsuya Takahashi.

Kyodo News reports that Takahashi

had more than ¥10 million in bank accounts when fellow fugitive Naoko Kikuchi, 40, was arrested late Sunday, sources said Wednesday.

Takahashi, who is believed to have been hiding in Kawasaki until recently, withdrew some ¥2.4 million Monday from a bank account opened under the name "Shinya Sakurai," a real person, the sources said. He reportedly used the name to rent an apartment in Kawasaki in 2001.

In all, Takahashi had more than ¥10 million in various bank accounts when Kikuchi was arrested, the sources said.

Police believe that in his hurry to flee after Kikuchi's arrest, Takahashi went to a bank to withdraw about ¥2.4 million rather than use an automated teller machine, which limits the amount that can be withdrawn. [...]

Police are combing through his bank transactions to determine if other cult members aided his flight. They are also checking security videos at railway stations, and have told police nationwide to be on the lookout.

Meanwhile, pictures of Takahashi have been released in the hope of gathering information that leads to his arrest. [...]

In his recent photos, Takahashi looks very different from the man who appeared on wanted posters in 1995. In particular, his eyebrows and face shape have changed.

10 million Yen = 125,894.20 USD / 100,049.83 EUR / 81,215.24 GBP

Naoka Kikuchi

Meanwhile The Australian reports that Naoka Kikuchi, the Aum Shinrikyo fugutive arrested last Sunday, reportedly

admitted to investigators that she had helped produce the sarin gas used to poison 13 people in the Tokyo subway.

But she said she was unaware of what the Aum Shinrikyo (or Supreme Truth) cult planned to use the poison for. At the time, cult members had amassed an arsenal of chemical, biological and conventional weapons in anticipation of an apocalyptic showdown with the government.

Kikuchi has been charged with murder, attempted murder and other offences.

Research resources on AUM shinrikyo
Final police tally confirms 6,583 fell victim to 8 Aum-related crimes
How AUM Shinrikyo justified violence
Life inside AUM Shinrikyo
How cult apologists, including J. Gordon Melton and James R. Lewis, defended Aum Shrinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo may be gone in name but guru still has following
Ex-prosecutor: 'Aum made preparations to topple the government'

Full story: Manhunt for Final Sarin Gas Attack Fugitive Closing In

One of the two remaining fugitive members of Aum Shinrikyo, the doomsday cult behind the 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo subways, was arrested Sunday, according to Japanese media reports.

The Associated Press reports

Former senior Aum Shinrikyo cult member Naoko Kikuchi, 40, had been spotted in Sagamihara city, 30 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of Tokyo, and acknowledged who she was when approached by police, according to NHK TV and other media reports, citing investigative sources. She was wanted on charges of murder in the 1995 attack.

Police declined to confirm the reports.

Kyodo News writes

Kikuchi, formerly a senior member of the doomsday cult, was taken into custody in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, and transferred to the Metropolitan Police Department in nearby Tokyo, where she was arrested for murder and attempted murder in connection with the sarin attack.

Australia Network News says

Kikuchi, one of only two remaining Aum fugitives at large, is believed to have been part of the cult team responsible for producing the sarin nerve gas used in the subway attack, which killed 13 people and sickened more than 1,000.

Officers were tipped off by informers. When they approached the woman and asked if she was Kikuchi, she said "Yes", NHK reported.

She was immediately transferred to the Tokyo metropolitan police department, NHK added.

The case follows the surrender of Makoto Hirata, 47, a former Aum member who gave himself up to officers at a police station in central Tokyo minutes before midnight on New Year's Eve.

If the woman is confirmed to be Kikuchi it would leave only one person, Katsuya Takahashi, 54, still at large on the Aum wanted list.

Still at large: Katsuya Takahashi

The BBC notes

Nearly 200 Aum Shinrikyo members have been convicted in connection with the sarin attack and other crimes. Thirteen are awaiting execution.

Aum Shinrikyo began as a spiritual group mixing Hindu and Buddhist beliefs in the 1980s, but developed into a paranoid cult obsessed with Armageddon.

Cult leader Shoko Asahara is among those on death row.

Aum Shinrikyo reinvented itself as the Aleph group, which continues to operate as a spiritual group.

Research resources on AUM shinrikyo
Final police tally confirms 6,583 fell victim to 8 Aum-related crimes
How AUM Shinrikyo justified violence
Life inside AUM Shinrikyo
How cult apologists, including J. Gordon Melton and James R. Lewis, defended Aum Shrinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo may be gone in name but guru still has following
Ex-prosecutor: 'Aum made preparations to topple the government'

Full story: Japan arrests most-wanted Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult member

The Tokyo District Court sentenced former Aum Shinrikyo member Akemi Saito to 14 months in prison Tuesday for harboring fugitive cultist Makoto Hirata for more than 14 years.

The Japan Times says

Presiding Judge Noriaki Yoshimura ruled that it was because of Saito's support that Hirata was able to avoid arrest for his alleged involvement in a 1995 kidnap-murder and a staged firebombing of the cult's Tokyo headquarters.

Hirata turned himself in to police in late December.

But in rejecting the two-year prison term demanded by prosecutors, Yoshimura said the court also took into account that Saito, 49, turned herself in to police on Jan. 10 after Hirata did so on New Year's Eve, and that she confessed and expressed sincere remorse.

But even considering these factors, the judge ruled out a suspended sentence, as sought by Saito's lawyers, saying her crime was too grave for such leniency.

Saito's chief lawyer, Taro Takimoto, criticized the ruling, saying putting his client behind bars is further punishing her for actions she regrets, including becoming an Aum follower and for placing her faith in its now-condemned founder, Shoko Asahara.

"Sending her to prison isn't the only way for her to take responsibility," said Takimoto, himself a victim of Aum's crimes but who has since worked on behalf of former cultists.

"She is determined to live the rest of her life trying to pay back for her crimes," Takimoto said. "It's better to let her do that in society and not by putting her in jail."

Full story: Former Aum Shinrikyo cult member who hid fugitive gets 14 months