Public security authorities remain alert to Aleph, an organization that is the successor to the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday sect, which carried out a sarin nerve agent attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture 30 years ago.
Aleph, which has most of the approximately 1,650 worshipers of Aum Shinrikyo’s three successor groups, continues to worship as dogma the teachings of sect leader Chizuo Matsumoto, who went by the name Shoko Asahara and was executed in 2018. Authorities still believe Aleph could commit mass murders.
Aum Shinrikyo killed eight residents and injured more than 140 in Matsumoto by spreading sarin gas in a residential area late on the night of June 27, 1994.
