<figure id="attachment_418352" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418352" style="width: 3000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="989ca017"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/a78da2fdb31b9a3f20a678d91fd87619.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418352" class="wp-caption-text">The site of the &#8220;6th Satian&#8221; where Asahara holed up after the sarin gas attack on the subway. Today, there are no buildings, only dead grass.</figcaption></figure>
<p> Once upon a time, there was a fanatical cult group plotting to overthrow the state at the foot of majestic Mt. The &#8220;6th Satyan,&#8221; where the guru of the group that has caused numerous incidents was hiding until the very end, and the &#8220;7th Satyan,&#8221; a chemical manufacturing plant, and other related facilities that attracted a lot of attention after the Sarin gas attack on the subway, but now there is not even a trace of them left. &#8211;The &#8220;No. 6 Satyan&#8221; was a chemical factory.</p>
<p> Aum Shinrikyo, a religious group that shook Japan in the 1990s. The &#8220;Sakamoto Lawyer Family Murder Case,&#8221; which developed out of discussions between the cult and the family of a believer over an ordained believer, and an election campaign in which the group sang and danced while wearing an elephant mascot and masks of the cult&#8217;s founder, Shoko Asahara, were reported daily in the wide-ranging news shows and weekly magazines of the time. At that time, several cult facilities were built in Kamikuishiki Village (present-day Fujikawaguchiko Town, Minamitsuru-gun, Yamanashi Prefecture), and they were called &#8220;Satyan. The appearance of wearing electrode cords called &#8220;headgear&#8221; on their heads and living in groups dressed in white also accentuated the strangeness of the group.</p>
<p> This year marks the 30th anniversary since the sarin produced at the factory was used in the &#8220;Sarin gas attack on the subway&#8221; that occurred on March 20, 1995. As the incident is fading away, what is happening to the former Aum Shinrikyo base now? In anticipation of this milestone, we took another look at the site.</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> A memorial stands on the former site of the body disposal site.</span></h3>
<figure id="attachment_418353" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418353" style="width: 3000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d7082d8c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/1509b0b3b2efd19e419f0a2a520e7b14.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418353" class="wp-caption-text"> The site where &#8220;Satyan No. 2&#8221; and other buildings once stood. The site is now a park.</figcaption></figure>
<p> Satyan No. 7, where the chemical weapon Sarin was refined, and Satyan No. 6, where Asahara, the founder of the church, lived in hiding, were all demolished after 1996. Among the former sites, we first visited the site centering on the &#8220;No. 2 Satyan,&#8221; where the bodies of lynching murderers and other victims were disposed of. It is now a vast park and a cenotaph has been erected.</p>
<p> Few people visited the park, but flowers were laid at the cenotaph. Upon closer inspection, I found that they were artificial flowers made of plastic, and some of the petals had deteriorated and fallen off. In the area where the monument was erected, there used to be a body disposal machine that worked like a giant microwave oven, and it was the site where believers who were inconvenient to the cult were &#8220;poached.</p>
<p> Currently, local dairy farmers and others come and go in front of the site. There were other &#8220;Satyan No. 3&#8221; and &#8220;Satyan No. 5&#8221; at the same site, but now there were only overgrown weeds, and traces of the place, except for the cenotaph, were hardly recognizable.</p>
<figure id="attachment_418354" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418354" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a941e251"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/0269e48d1edaa3f7732c617c8a728fdf.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418354" class="wp-caption-text"> A cenotaph stands in one of the areas. Artificial flowers were offered there.</figcaption></figure>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The &quot;6th Satyan&quot; where Asahara was holed up is at ......"></div>
<figure id="attachment_418334" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418334" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8ef78c02"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/68279310d9cc9322bb1b3abf7efb2537.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418334" class="wp-caption-text">The 6th Satyan (back) where Oyasama Asahara holed up until the end. There was also a hidden room for Oyasama&#8217;s emergency use.</figcaption></figure>
<p> The Sixth Satyan was a large facility where believers lived in groups, and became famous after the sarin gas attack on the subway, when Oyasama Asahara spent nearly two months hiding in a hidden room behind the ceiling. A reporter who covered the incident recalls.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> Until Asahara&#8217;s arrest, the room was haunted almost every day by people from the media, including television, newspapers, and magazines. In front of the hut marked &#8220;VICTORY&#8221; at the entrance, believers were guarding the building 24 hours a day. I remember a tape of Asahara singing &#8220;I&#8217;m innocent, I&#8217;m innocent, I&#8217;m innocent&#8221; was played endlessly even late at night.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In the early morning, boxes of what appeared to be &#8220;Aum-shoku,&#8221; or breakfast for believers, were brought in in large quantities, and the smell of ripe bananas spread throughout the area. It was reported that only Asahara&#8217;s family members ate high-grade melons, but the believers seemed to have a simple diet.</span></p>
<p> Today, there are no traces of Asahara&#8217;s family left in the area, except for a thick growth of dead grass. Behind the house, as majestic as it was at the time, looms Mt.</p>
<figure id="attachment_418356" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418356" style="width: 3000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="be5c4d79"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/f0984310f7b3d560a063fe0e0eb4c1e4.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418356" class="wp-caption-text"> The current site of the 6th Satian. There are no traces of buildings, and the area is overgrown with grass and trees.</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Walking on the site of the former sarin plant</span></h3>
<figure id="attachment_418332" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418332" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="2f388832"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/0756b6b4188330595d07b37d4b585dd5.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418332" class="wp-caption-text"> Inside the 7th Satyan (far right), research for sarin refining was being conducted. The 10th Satyan (far left), where many believers used to live together, can be seen.</figcaption></figure>
<p> Inside the huge white building that once towered over the site was a full-scale chemical plant for the production of highly poisonous gas and other chemicals. This magazine scooped up photos of its interior in its April 21, 1995 issue. Today, the place is covered with weeds, and it is hard to believe that there was a terrorist chemical plant there if we were not told.</p>
<p> Although this factory was preserved in its current state longer than the other Satyans for subsequent trials and investigations, it was dismantled around 1998.</p>
<figure id="attachment_418357" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418357" style="width: 3000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8fe91dc9"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/3d041c1039ed45ee136e53e409523738.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418357" class="wp-caption-text"> No trace of the &#8220;Satyan No. 7&#8221; can be found today. The site was quiet.</figcaption></figure>
<p> The next stop was the site of the Fuji Headquarters (Fujinomiya City, Shizuoka Prefecture). It is about a 20-minute drive from the former Kamikyuuichiki Village. Fujinomiya City, Shizuoka Prefecture, on the border with Yamanashi Prefecture, is the site of the former headquarters, which has attracted attention for the introduction of a helicopter imported from Russia. It is said that here, too, the tragedy of the poaching of believers and the confinement of children in solitary confinement was repeated. The 1st and 4th Satyan are adjacent to the site, and at the time, videos and animations of the cult&#8217;s preaching were produced there.</p>
<p> A monument commemorating the unity of local residents in their efforts to eliminate the Aum cult remains as a faint trace.</p>
<p> An hour&#8217;s drive from the headquarters at Mt. Fuji Seiryu Seisha, a facility located along a river deep in the town of Nanbu, Yamanashi Prefecture. It is said that plans were afoot to smuggle automatic rifles and other weapons into the factory inside. On the site of the former facility is a park named &#8220;Oasis in the Forest,&#8221; but the fact that the facility was once associated with the Aum cult has been largely forgotten, and only the quiet murmur of the river can be heard.</p>
<p> In the 30 years that have passed, traces of the Aum Shinrikyo cult are gradually disappearing. However, in order to prevent such a tragedy from happening again, the memory of the incident must be passed on to future generations without fading away.</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The contents of the &quot;Seventh Satyan,&quot; the site of the firearms factory..."></div>
<figure id="attachment_418350" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418350" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="889208d2"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/b9c05568c89878be84dfb27dc373ac49.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418350" class="wp-caption-text">This is a photo of the inside of the &#8220;7th Satian&#8221; that this magazine scooped up in 1995. At the time, the factory was said to have a strong odor like that of insecticide.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_418363" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418363" style="width: 3000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f1e26637"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/cd9a945d9253c0236fec6b9fca62fc8a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418363" class="wp-caption-text"> The former site of Satian No. 7 and Satian No. 10. Weeds are now growing freely.</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_418358" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418358" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="66e3c564"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/e84499b80b99d909ceda2700c79e6f52.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418358" class="wp-caption-text"> Aerial view of the headquarters of Mt. A network of communication with the former Kamikuishiki Village Satyan Group was also in place.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_418366" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418366" style="width: 3000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ed5805d5"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/5f7f3ecd1f126fcf0fda0d04fc99f17d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418366" class="wp-caption-text"> The headquarters is now a training facility for guide dogs.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_418368" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418368" style="width: 3000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="cf911a14"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/04c34b338b55f170b11416c5762d0c3d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418368" class="wp-caption-text"> The site of Fuji Seiryu Seisho was turned into a park. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the &#8220;Sarin gas attack on the subway. The murmur of the river was quietly echoing in the former Aum cult base.</figcaption></figure>
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 Takero Shintai

 Thirty years have passed since the sarin gas attack on the subway shook all of Japan. As the incident fades into the past, we took another look at the "present" at the site of the former Aum Shinrikyo "base".

Sarin factory and body disposal site&#8230;30 years after the sarin gas attack on the subway, the site of Aum Shinrikyo&#8217;s &#8220;former base&#8221; now

Sarin factory and body disposal site…30 years after the sarin gas attack on the subway, the site of Aum Shinrikyo’s “former base” now

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