The continent - Asia

Asia is by far the largest continent, by surface and also by population. Asia covers an area of approximatly 44 million square kilometers and about 4.7 billion people live there, roughly 60% of the total world's population. The most common languages spoken in Asia are Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese. 

The circumstances 

By 2030, the world will face around 560 natural disasters per year, with the majority of these events affecting Asia. This is according to the Global Assessment Report 2022, published by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). According to the organisation, the increase in the frequency of such disasters is due to climate change and poor risk management. Most Asian countries with high disaster risk are also among those with the highest proportion of people living below the national poverty line. Therefore, living in most regions of Asia can be very dangerous and unsafe. In addition, the large population on the continent has led to an increase in poverty among the people and makes the conditions to find an employment really hard.

Ōmu Shinrikyō

The youth of Shōkō Asahara

Chizuo Matsumoto was born on March 2, 1955 into a poor family with five siblings as the second youngest. He had infatile glaucoma since he was born. Following that his left eye was blind and his ability to see on his right eye was immensely restricted. Therefore Matsumoto couldn’t follow his family’s tradition working as a tatami-mat-maker, which is a mat traditionally used in Japanese-style rooms as a flooring material, and was forced to move into a special school for blind children when he was six years old. After that he wasn’t able to live with his family anymore.

During his school time Matsumoto used his nearly healthy eye as an advantage to exploit and gain control over his classmates, who were mostly completely blind. He wanted to own the role as a leader from an early age, so this gave him the opportunity to fulfill his needs and gain money, power and influence at his school. Since his classmates were all completely blind he felt pretentious and even started bullying and beating them. In his late teenage years Matsumoto began fantasising about ruling a kingdom and having the total amount of power. He commited to his classmates that he wants to play a major role in the world, for example as a Prime Minister to rule over Japan.

Chizuo Matsumoto graduated in 1973 after living at his school for twelve years. He desperately wanted to study politics at Tokyo University to fulfill his dreams of becoming a well-known Prime Minister so he can satisfy his need to rule over weaker people. Unfortunately the University rejected him. Therefor Matsumoto was devastated and lost all hope of ever being able to reach his goal. 

To make money he was forced to find an alternative as soon as possible and ended up studying acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, which wasn’t an unusual career path for blind people in Japan. A while later Chizuo Matsumoto became self-employed and established his own medicine shop in Tokyo. In the following year he married and eventually got six children with his wife. In 1981, Matsumoto was discoverd practicing pharmacy without a license and selling drugs, for which he received a fine. 

During this time he also started to gain interest in religion and started to study several different religions. Further he changed his name to Shoko Asahara, which has a religious and aristocratic meaning. In 1984 and the following years he made various visits to India and later claimed to his followers that he achieved an Enlightenment ans a “special mission” there. 

Aum Shinrikyo

Aum Shinrikyo was established by Asahara in 1987, starting of as a yoga and meditation class in his own apartment. It attracted an increasing amount of members in the following years and was officially refers to as a religious organisation since 1989. 

To advertise his cult, Asahara started to claim that he was able to cure physical illnesses by positive thinking and improving intelligence. Through his efforts Aum Shinrikyo continued to grow. The religious practices often included the use of drugs and physical pain due to shock therapy. Due to accusations about forcing member to donate money and holding them against their will Shoko Asahara and his sect received much criticism. People were also convinced he murdered a sect member who tried to leave in February 1989. 

In October 1989, Tsutsumi Sakamoto, a lawyer who threatened the sect with a lawsuit, and his family went missing. At the time, the police was not able to solve the case, but later it was revealed that cult members of Aum Shinrikyo murdered and hid the bodies. 

In the following years, the group assassinated several different opponents and critics and Asahara even planned to manufacture and produce different weapons. 

On the 20 March 1995, Aum members released a toxic chemical weapon in a attack on five trains in Tokyo. Apparently Asahara found out about planned police raids on cult facilities and wanted to divert the attention away from the group. In the attack approximately killed thirteen people and injured 6,000. 

Following the attack, Shoko Asahara and various other sect members were arrested. On 6 July 2018, Asahara and six other followers were executed for the gas attack and other crimes.