Black Files: The Shadow of Aum — Japan's Doomsday Cult

Black Torii — Japanese True Crime · Jul 23, 2026 · 44m

Some crimes stand alone. These three do not. They are chapters of a single story — the story of Aum Shinrikyo, the doomsday cult that spent six years escalating from murder in the night to chemical warfare at rush hour. It begins in November 1989, in a Yokohama apartment. A thirty-three-year-old lawyer named Tsutsumi Sakamoto had been helping families recover their loved ones from the cult. Six Aum members entered his home in the early morning hours and killed him, his wife, and their fourteen-month-old son. The family simply vanished — and stayed missing for nearly six years. Because no one…