Japanese Cult Leader Gassed Tokyo Subway

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]On March 20th, 1995, Tokyo's morning commute became a nightmare. Five men boarded subway trains carrying plastic bags filled with liquid. They punctured the bags and walked away. Within minutes, passengers started collapsing, foaming at the mouth, convulsing on the floor. The liquid was sarin gas, a nerve agent so deadly that a single drop can kill. 14 people died, thousands were injured, Tokyo's subway system shut down completely. The attackers weren't foreign terrorists. They were members of Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese religious cult. Their leader, Shoko Asahara, convinced his followers he was Jesus Christ reborn. He preached that the world would end in nuclear war, and only his chosen disciples would survive.

[00:00:40]To prepare for this apocalypse, the cult built secret laboratories. They manufactured tons of chemical weapons in hidden facilities across Japan. This wasn't their first attempt [music] at mass murder. They'd already killed 17 people in previous gas attacks, but the subway attack was different. It targeted the innocent commuters in the heart of Japan's capital. How did a meditation group become the country's most dangerous terrorist organization?