page_title: Aleph (Japanese cult)
section_title: Current activities
hierarchical_section_title: Aleph (Japanese cult) / Current activities
caption_attribution_description: English: The logo of the Aleph, a cult group in Japan. 日本語: オウム真理教の関するグループ、アレフのロゴ 中文: 与奥姆真理教相关的团体Aleph的Logo。
context_page_description: Aleph, formerly Aum Shinrikyo, is a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been responsible for another smaller sarin attack the previous year.
  The group has never confessed; they claim that those who carried out attacks did so secretly, without being known to other executives and ordinary believers. Asahara broadcast his singing, insisting on his innocence through a radio broadcast relayed from Russia and directed toward Japan.
  On 6 July 2018, after exhausting all appeals, Asahara and six followers were executed as a punishment for the 1995 attacks and other crimes, and the remaining six on death row were executed on 26 July. At 12:10 am, on New Year's Day 2019, at least nine people were injured when a car was deliberately driven into crowds celebrating the new year on Takeshita Street in Tokyo. Local police reported the arrest of Kazuhiro Kusakabe, the suspected driver, who allegedly admitted to intentionally ramming his vehicle into crowds to protest his opposition to the death penalty, specifically in retaliation for the execution of the aforementioned Aum cult members.
context_section_description: According to a June 2005 report by the National Police Agency, Aleph had approximately 1,650 members, of whom 650 lived communally in compounds. The group operated 26 facilities in 17 prefectures, and about 120 residential facilities. An article in the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper on 11 September 2002 showed that the Japanese public still mistrusts Aleph, and compounds are usually surrounded by protest banners from local residents.
caption: Aleph
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