Japan gov’t appeals ruling ordering handover of ex-AUM leader’s remains to daughter
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TOKYO — The Japanese government has appealed a high court ruling ordering the remains of former AUM Shinrikyo leader Chizuo Matsumoto be handed over to his second daughter.
Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, was executed in 2018. His second daughter filed a lawsuit against the state demanding that the remains of the former death row inmate be transferred to her. The Tokyo High Court ordered the transfer on Feb. 5 this year, followed by the government’s appeal of the ruling to the Supreme Court on Feb. 18.
If the top court upholds the high court and district court decisions that both ruled against the state, finalizing them, the government will be required to hand over the remains to the daughter.
Matsumoto’s body was cremated after his execution in July 2018. The government has since kept his remains and hair on the grounds that transferring them to a successor organization to the AUM Shinrikyo cult could pose a threat to public safety.
While the high court ruling acknowledged the potential threat to public safety, it determined that the second daughter sought the handover of the remains to mourn her father and that she had no intention of handing them over to the successor organization. The court concluded that the government could not restrict her ownership rights as she had expressed her intentions to keep the remains in a safe at her condominium contracted with a security company and to report to the police if any abnormalities arose.
Upon the high court ruling, the daughter released a comment stating, “I urge the government to immediately hand over the remains.”
In a domestic relations adjudication case where the family of Matsumoto contested the ownership of his remains, the Supreme Court in July 2021 finalized a ruling that the ownership rights belonged to the second daughter. Following this, the daughter filed a lawsuit in October 2022 demanding the remains be handed over to her. The Tokyo District Court in March 2024 ordered the handover, arguing that the government’s claim of danger lacked corroborative evidence and remained within the realm of abstract possibility.
Content retrieved from: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260220/p2a/00m/0na/012000c.
