Sakamoto family murder

Nakagawa was executed on July 6, 2018, while Okazaki and Hashimoto were executed on July 26, 2018 (18 years and one day after being sentenced).

In 2017, Nakagawa published a memoir from prison in which he renounced his Aum beliefs, apologized to the families of his victims, and referred to Aum leader Shoko Asahara as a "criminal".

Following the 2017 death of Kim Jong-nam (the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un), Nakagawa wrote a letter from prison in which he expressed his belief that Kim Jong-nam had died from VX poisoning, quantities of which Aum Shinrikyo had produced and used in the 1990s.

As reported by NHK in 2015, the Tokyo metropolitan police had received a tip that an Aum member was involved in the murder, and in 1991 launched an investigation into the cult's facilities in the city. However, the investigation was shut down after two months due to the murder having been committed in Yokohama, outside of the jurisdiction of the Tokyo police.

Following the Tokyo attacks, police charged Aum members Hideo Murai, Tomomasa Nakagawa, Kazuaki Okazaki, and Satoro Hashimoto with the murder of the Sakamoto family. Okazaki's trial was the shortest, as he pleaded guilty to all charges. Murai never made it to trial, as he was stabbed to death by a Korean assassin in April 1995 as he was being transferred by police. Okazaki was found guilty in October 1998. In 2000, the last two perpetrators, Nakagawa and Hashimoto, were convicted of the murders. On July 25, 2000, Okazaki, Nakagawa, and Hashimoto were sentenced to death. On 28 July 2000, Kiyohide Hayakawa was sentenced to death for his role in the murder.

At 3 a.m. on November 5, the group entered Sakamoto's apartment through an unlocked door. Tsutsumi Sakamoto was struck on the head with a hammer, injected with potassium chloride, and strangled. His wife, Satoko Sakamoto (坂本都子 Sakamoto Satoko, 29 years old) was beaten and injected with potassium chloride. Their infant son Tatsuhiko Sakamoto (坂本竜彦 Sakamoto Tatsuhiko, 14 months old) was injected with the potassium chloride and then his face was covered with a cloth. The family's remains were placed in metal drums and hidden in three separate rural areas in three different prefectures (Tsutsumi in Niigata, Satoko in Toyama, and Tatsuhiko in Nagano) so that in case the bodies were uncovered, police might not link the three incidents. Their bed sheets were burned and the tools were dropped in the ocean. The victims' teeth were smashed to frustrate identification. Their bodies were not found until the perpetrators revealed the locations after they were captured in connection with the 1995 Tokyo subway attack. By the time police searched the areas in which the victims were placed, their bodies were reduced to bones.

On November 5, 1989, Tsutsumi Sakamoto (坂本 堤 Sakamoto Tsutsumi April 6, 1956 – November 5, 1989), a lawyer working on a class action lawsuit against Aum Shinrikyo, a doomsday cult in Japan, was murdered, along with his wife Satoko and his child Tatsuhiko, by perpetrators who broke into his apartment. Six years later, the murderers were uncovered and it was established that they had been members of Aum Shinrikyo at the time of the crime.

In October 1989, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS) taped an interview with Sakamoto regarding his anti-Aum efforts. However, the network secretly showed a video of the interview to Aum members without Sakamoto's knowledge, intentionally breaking its protection of sources. Aum officials then pressured TBS to cancel the planned broadcast of the interview.

Several days later, on November 3, 1989, several Aum Shinrikyo members, including Hideo Murai, chief scientist, Satoro Hashimoto, a martial arts master, Tomomasa Nakagawa and Kazuaki Okazaki drove to Yokohama, where Sakamoto lived. They carried a pouch with 14 hypodermic needles and a supply of potassium chloride. According to court testimony provided by the perpetrators later, they planned to use the chemical substance to kidnap Sakamoto from Yokohama's Shinkansen train station, but, contrary to expectations, he did not show up—it was a holiday (Bunka no hi, or "Culture Day"), so he slept in with his family at home.

In 1988, in order to pursue the class action suit, Sakamoto initiated the establishment of Aum Shinrikyo Higai Taisaku Bengodan ("Coalition of Help for those affected by Aum Shinrikyo"). This was later renamed: Aum Shinrikyo Higaisha-no-kai or "Aum Shinrikyo Victims' Association". The group still operated under this title as of 2006.

Tsutsumi was born in Yokosuka, Kanagawa. After graduating from Yokosuka High School, he entered Tokyo University and graduated in law. He worked as a law clerk until he passed the bar exam in 1984 at age 27. He was a member of the Yokohama Bar Association. From 1987 he worked as a lawyer at Yokohama Law Offices.