Aum Shinrikyo
, better known by their former name , is a Japanese new religions, Japanese new religious movement and doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been respo ...
member convicted for his participation in the
sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway
The was a chemical domestic terrorist attack perpetrated on 20 March 1995, in Tokyo, Japan, by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult. In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on three lines of the Tokyo Metro (then ''Teito Rapi ...
.
Background
Prior to joining Aum, Hayashi was a senior
medical doctor
A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
The , also known as MEXT, is one of the eleven ministries of Japan that compose part of the executive branch of the government of Japan.
History
The Meiji period, Meiji government created the first Ministry of Education in 1871. In January 2001 ...
, or MEXT in short). Himself the son of a doctor, Hayashi graduated from
Keio University
, abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally established as a school for Rangaku, Western studies in 1858 in Edo. It was granted university status in 1920, becomi ...
, one of
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
's top universities. He was a heart and artery specialist at
Keio University Hospital
Keio University Hospital (慶應義塾大学病院, ''Keio Gijuku Daigaku Byouin'') is an academic health science centre and tertiary referral hospital located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. The hospital is part of the Keio University.
Overview
Ke ...
, which he left to become head of Circulatory Medicine at the National Sanitorium Hospital in Tokai, Ibaraki (north of Tokyo). Somewhere along the line Hayashi became disillusioned and decided to look beyond conventional medicine. He found AUM during his search.
In 1990 Hayashi resigned his job and left his family to join Aum and become a renunciate. He was believed to be one of
Shoko Asahara
, born , was a Japanese cult leader and terrorist who founded and led the doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted of masterminding the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and was also involved in several other crimes. As ...
's favorites and was appointed the group's "Minister of Health" with responsibilities encompassing a broad range of activities from development of a balanced "Aum diet" and supervision over "Aum hospital" to experimentations with the illegal
psychedelic drug
Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluc ...
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...
(which reportedly was used in one of Aum's initiations sometime in 2002).
Besides involvement in Tokyo subway sarin gas attack and LSD drug affair, Hayashi was convicted in a number of other crimes. For example, he assisted in kidnapping of Kiyoshi Kariya, the 68-year-old brother of a 62-year-old woman who planned to become a renunciate but went missing (Hayashi believed she was held against her will by her brother to prevent her from becoming a nun). Hayashi and several other men injected Kariya with a drug to find the woman, but Kariya unexpectedly died, either from miscalculated dosage or weak physical health. Previously Hayashi helped another Aum member to recover from a forced drug treatment administered by the follower's father (also to prevent him from becoming a renunciate).
Tokyo subway sarin attack
During the Tokyo sarin gas attack, Ikuo Hayashi and Tomomitsu Niimi were involved in delivering the
sarin
Sarin (NATO designation GB nerve_agent#G-series.html" ;"title="hort for nerve agent#G-series">G-series, "B" is an extremely toxic organophosphorus compound.Shin-Ochanomizu Station in the central business district. Two transit authority staff in the subway were killed by the sarin, including the assistant station-master, and 231 suffered serious injuries. Both perpetrators did not attempt to hide and returned to Aum facilities.
Sometime after the news of the attack gained worldwide attention, Hayashi later surrendered to the Japan police wherein he provided details of the attack and its perpetrators to investigators and also included additional information about Aum activities post-attack. A huge raid of Aum facilities and arrest of Aum members were conducted.
Trial and legal proceedings
In court, the two reacted differently. While Niimi refused to cooperate with prosecution saying that the "four meditative concentrations" he experienced under guidance of Asahara prevent him from testifying against his Guru, Hayashi accepted responsibility in the attack and testified in court. He was quoted as saying that he regrets that "while he became a doctor to help, he used his skills to inflict sufferings". He apologized to the victims and said that he views the death penalty as an appropriate punishment for his deeds. Niimi, citing different reasons (loyalty to Asahara and Buddhist fatalistic ideas), also said that he would "gladly" accept the
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...
.
Hayashi was given a life sentence with a possibility of parole in 20 years, while Niimi was sentenced to death (and later executed in 2018). As of 2025, Hayashi remains imprisoned.