Kazuaki Okazaki

Kazuaki Okazaki (岡崎一明, Okazaki Kazuaki, October 8, 1960 – July 26, 2018)[1][2] was a Japanese convicted multiple murderer and former member of the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo who co-perpetrated the Sakamoto family murder and another murder in 1989.[3] Immediately after the Sakamoto murders, he abandoned the cult and turned himself to the police after the Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995.[4] He was tried and was sentenced to death for those crimes, for which he pleaded clemency. The petition was repeatedly dismissed by the courts and he was executed by hanging in July 2018.[4]

Kazuaki Okazaki
岡崎一明
Undated police mugshot
Born(1960-10-08)October 8, 1960
Mine, Yamaguchi, Japan
DiedJuly 26, 2018(2018-07-26) (aged 57)
Tokyo Detention House, Katsushika, Tokyo, Japan
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
NationalityJapanese
Known forSakamoto family murder and other crimes related to membership of Aum Shinrikyo
Criminal charge(s)Murder
Criminal penaltyDeath
Criminal statusExecuted

Biography

Okazaki was born in Mine, Yamaguchi as a premature baby in 1960.[5] In January 1963, his parents divorced. He was eventually renamed after the divorce.[6] Okazaki was reportedly also physically abused as a child by his adoptive father in several occasions.[7][8][9] As a junior high school student he began attending Sunday school and studying the Bible after meeting a German Protestant Christian.[10][11] He graduated from school in 1979 and his wishes were to enroll at the Yamaguchi University but his fees to entrance into the university were refused and he later moved to Matsue, Shimane Prefecture.

Joining Aum Shinrikyo

Okazaki met Aum Shinrikyo leader Shoko Asahara in December of 1985 when Asahara held a conference in Kanagawa Prefecture and was reportedly overwhelmed by Asahara's "great inclusiveness, practicing energy, and humble attitude", prompting him to join the cult.[12] By 1986, Asahara was aggressively trying to acquire followers to expand his cult, and asked Okazaki, who was a salesman, to sell books that promote the organization.[12] Okazaki did great in sales and became an active salesman of the published works by Asahara, to whom he showed greater admiration by the time.[12]

On September 22, 1988, during a cult's event, a follower suddenly died during a training exercise. Asahara, who by then was planning to submit to the Governor of Tokyo for a cult certification and was looking to further expand the organization, asked Okazaki to conceal the death of this member to the public, to which Okazaki agreed.[13][14][15][16] The next morning, after Asahara's instruction of incinerating this person's body, Okazaki and others built fireproof bricks and placed the body there. The remains were later scattered in Lake Shōji, in Yamanashi Prefecture.[17][18][19]

Murders

In December 1988, a 21-year-old follower told Asahara that he would leave the cult because he could not put up with the training. In January 1989, this young man told Okazaki about his plans to leave, and Okazaki tried to stop him. As a result, Asahara ordered him a harder training locked in confinement in a vacant lot.[20][21][22][23][24] He was later murdered in November 1989 by Okazaki and other members of the cult.[25]

On the morning of November 4, 1989, Okazaki along with a group of other cult members entered the Sakamoto family apartment through an unlocked door at 3 A.M. There, Okazaki co-murdered the family, strucking Tsutsumi Sakamoto in the head with a hammer. beating his wife Satoko Sakamoto to death and injecting their infant son Tatsuhiko Sakamoto, 14 months old, with potassium chloride later covering his face with a cloth.[26] Their remains would not be found until after the perpetrators' confessions in 1995.

Escape from Aum Shinrikyo

In February 1990, Okazaki took photos of the sites where the Sakamotos were allegedly buried and sent them to Asahara, blackmailing him of sending the photos to the police if he did not give him money for living expenses, to which Asahara initially refused, prompting Okazaki to send maps and other photographs to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police and Sakamotos' lawyer's office.[27] Several days later, Okazaki sent similar letters indicating the whereabouts of the corpses of Sakamoto and his wife to the police and the lawyers' office. This time, Asahara agreed to give him money to keep him silent. Okazaki was given about 8.3 million yen, and tried to stop a second wave of letters that he had sent to prefectural police.[27] However, police managed to track him down and he was questioned for the first letters that he had sent before, giving details and maps of the whereabouts of the Sakamoto family's bodies.[27] In the interrogation in 1990, Okazaki denied involvement in the crime and denied that Aum Shinrikyo was involved.[27]

Capture and trials

Immediately after the Tokyo subway sarin attack, Okazaki turned himself in to the police out of fears of assassination by cult members and confessed to his crimes.[27][28]

During a trial in July 1998, the prosecution demanded the death penalty for all the cultists. Okazaki asked for clemency due to the fact that he had confessed to the crimes and given himself up to police, aside of providing incriminatory evidence against the cult, however, the court rejected this saying that Okazaki had done so in order to protect himself and avoid harm to himself. In the second trial in December of 2001, he faced a similar argument by the court, when he was told that his belief in Asahara "did not destroy his personality itself" and that the "transformation of his values was caused by his own desire". The judge also rejected that he was a "weak person" and sentenced him to death again pointing that he was "far from reducing the defendant's responsibility and evacuation."[29] The Tokyo High Court later rejected a similar appeal and upheld his death sentence.[29]

On April 7, 2005, the Supreme Court finalized his death sentence on the basis that his crimes were "cruel and brutal [...] committed only to maintain the organization of the cult", and added that Okazaki held great responsibility for the crimes even after surrendering himself. The court, as well as the previous courts, highlighted that Okazaki had turned himself in to the police to "protect himself" from the cultists.[30]

Execution

Although Okazaki appealed several times to the fact that he had confessed and turned himself to the police to overturn his sentence, it was never accepted and under the order of justice minister Yoko Kamikawa, the first wave of executions of cultists were carried out on July 6, 2018.[31]

He was executed days later, after his death warrant was issued by Kamikawa, who said that "the majority of the public believe that there is no other option than to execute those who have committed brutal crimes."[32][33]

Comparison of case with Ikuo Hayashi

During the trials, Okazaki pointed out that one of the perpetrators of the Tokyo subway attack, Ikuo Hayashi, had received life imprisonment instead of the death penalty in exchange for his testimony. However, the courts found differences between both:[34]

  • 1) Okazaki was self-confident of avoiding the death penalty and confessed out of self-protection rather than self-reflection.
  • 2) In 1990, Okazaki did not contribute to the investigators of the Sakamotos murders, who at the time, did not suspect the cult was behind the attack.
  • 3) Okazaki thought that it was stronger for him to assist Asahara in his missions than to be excommunicated with main motivation defend the religious organization and strengthen his training.

References
  1. "Japan sends last six Aum death row inmates to the gallows". The Japan Times. 26 July 2018. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  2. "Japan Executes All Remaining Ex-Aum Members on Death Row". Nippon.com. 26 July 2018. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  3. "Aum killer's death sentence finalized". The Japan Times. 8 April 2005. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  4. "Profiles of top Aum Shinrikyo members, including six still on death row". The Japan Times. 6 July 2018. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  5. Saki, Ryuzo (1 November 2002). 大義なきテロリスト―オウム法廷の16被告 (日本語) 単行本 – 2002/11/1. Japan: Japan Broadcast Publishing Association. p. 102. ISBN 9784140807286.
  6. Saki 2002, p. 102-103.
  7. Aonuma, Yoichiro (20 July 2009). 私が見た21の死刑判決 (文春新書) (日本語) 新書 – 2009/7/20. Japan: Literature and Art Spring and Autumn. p. 26. ISBN 9784166607068.
  8. Egawa, Shoko (1 August 2008). 魂の虜囚―オウム事件はなぜ起きたか (日本語) 単行本 – 2000/8/1. Japan: Central Gonglun News Agency. p. 187. ISBN 9784120030420.
  9. Saki 2002, p. 106-107.
  10. Furuhata, Kenichi (1 October 2000). オウム法廷〈6〉被告人を死刑に処する (朝日文庫) (日本語) 文庫 – 2000/10/1. Japan: Asahi Shimbun. pp. 113, 116. ISBN 9784022613158.
  11. Saki 2002, p. 105.
  12. Saki 2002, p. 112.
  13. Furuhate, Kenichi (1 February 1998). オウム法廷―グルのしもべたち〈下〉 (朝日文庫) 文庫 – 1998/2/1. Japan: Asahi Shimbun. pp. 240–241. ISBN 9784022612243.
  14. Kyodo News Agency, Social Dept. (1 February 1997). 裁かれる教祖 ハードカバー – 1997/2/1. Japan: Kyodo News, Inc. p. 272. ISBN 9784764103788.
  15. Saki 2002, p. 26.
  16. Egawa, Shoko (1 August 2000). 魂の虜囚―オウム事件はなぜ起きたか 単行本 – 2000/8/1. Japan: Central Gonglun News Agency. pp. 138–139. ISBN 9784120030420.
  17. Egawa 2000, p. 138-139.
  18. Furuhate 1998, p. 242.
  19. Saki 2002, p. 138-139.
  20. Furuhate 1998, p. 243, 247.
  21. NHK, Special Interviews Group (29 May 2013). 未解決事件 オウム真理教秘録 単行本. Japan: Literature and Art Spring and Autumn. pp. 41, 48. ISBN 9784163759203.
  22. Saki 2002, p. 26, 28.
  23. Kyodo News Agency 1997, p. 272, 274.
  24. "平成7年刑（わ）894号 平成14年7月29日 東京地方裁判所" (PDF). Courts Japan. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  25. "Death penalty upheld for former cultist". The Japan Times. 14 December 2001. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  26. Egawa, Shoko (1 April 1997). 全真相 坂本弁護士一家拉致・殺害事件 ペーパーバック. Japan: Literature and Art Spring and Autumn. p. 20. ISBN 9784163527604.
  27. "The Asahara Trial: Okazaki tells of deals with guru, police". The Japan Times. 20 June 1997. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  28. Davis, Glenn (7 September 1995). "Japan police rearrest Aum members". UPI. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  29. Chunichi Shimbun Evening Edition" December 13, 2001
  30. "Okazaki to hang for Sakamoto killings". The Japan Times. 8 April 2005. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  31. "Tokyo Sarin attack: Aum Shinrikyo cult leaders executed". BBC News. 6 July 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  32. "Japan hangs 6 remaining AUM death row inmates". Kyodo News. 26 July 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  33. McKirdy, Euan; Griffiths, James (26 July 2018). "Remaining members of Japan's doomsday cult executed". CNN. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  34. "Chunichi Shimbun Evening Edition" October 23, 1998
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