Aum Victims Seek Govt Help as Aleph Compensation Stalls; Cult’s Successor Group Said to Have Hidden Assets
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Thirty years after the Aum Supreme Truth cult’s deadly attacks, victims’ families are calling for urgent government intervention as compensation payments from its successor group remain stalled.
Marking the 30th anniversary of Aum’s 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system on Thursday, victims’ families continue to seek compensation from Aleph, the cult’s main successor.
On Thursday, lawyer Kenji Utsunomiya, 78, a representative of a support organization for Aum crime victims, laid flowers at Kasumigaseki Station, one of the attack sites. “Forcing Aleph to compensate the victims has proved difficult despite our best efforts,” he said.
Despite the organization’s efforts to secure payments from Aleph on behalf of the victims, about ¥1 billion remains uncollected, sources said.
In addition to the subway gas attack, Aum was responsible for the 1989 murder of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family, as well as a 1994 sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. Upon the bankruptcy of the cult in 1996, it owed about ¥3.8 billion in compensation to about 1,200 victims.
In 2000, Aleph agreed with the bankruptcy trustee to pay the victims. Later, bankruptcy proceedings distributed about ¥1.5 billion, and the victims’ organization took over the remaining ¥2.3 billion in claims from the trustee.
In 2018, the organization filed a lawsuit against Aleph, seeking payment of more than ¥1 billion, after making deductions such as for about ¥800 million in government benefits paid to victims. In 2020, the court ruled that Aleph was obliged to pay the full amount.
Despite the ruling, the full payment remains outstanding. In 2020 and 2021, the victims organization tried to enforce the judgment but was only able to recover a total of about ¥42 million in cash and other assets belonging to Aleph.
On-site inspections by the Public Security Intelligence Agency have uncovered substantial amounts of cash held in the names of Aleph-affiliated entities. However, enforcement actions are limited to Aleph’s direct assets, making recovery difficult.
Content retrieved from: https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/crime-courts/20250321-244517/.
