All day and night, reporters and network choppers frantically followed a leader of the doomsday cult accused in a deadly gas attack on Tokyo subways nearly five years ago. The release from prison Wednesday of Fumihiro Joyu, the former spokesman of the Aum Shinri Kyo and one of the cult's top leaders, quickly deepened anxiety in this largely crime-free nation. The timing of his return could not have been worse. The public is already nervous about the recent slew of unsettling crimes involving religious groups and political radicals. Over the past week, two small bombs have exploded in train stations and three fires have been set on trains.
Police suspect ultra-leftist groups.
As a precaution, trash cans and coin lockers have been closed up or removed from most train stations in Tokyo - just as they were at the height of the Aum scare following the 1995 subway attack. Joyu said in a statement. Joyu was arrested in 1997 on forgery and perjury charges in a land deal made by the cult, and sentenced to three years in prison. He was not charged in the subway attack. The Japanese media meticulously tracked Joyu's progress from the gates of the Hiroshima prison in southwestern Japan to an airport from which he was shuttled to Tokyo.