was a member of the Japanese doomsday-cult group

Aum Shinrikyo , formerly , is a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been responsible for the Matsumoto sarin attack the previous year. The group says ...

who was convicted and executed for murder during the

Tokyo subway sarin attack The was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated on 20 March 1995, in Tokyo, Japan, by members of the cult movement Aum Shinrikyo. In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on three lines of the Tokyo Metro (then ''Teito Rapi ...

Early life

Born in 1964, Hirose was an outstanding student in his early years. In 1983, Hirose was admitted by

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

and chose

applied physics Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered to be a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering. "Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination ...

as his major. In 1987, Hirose graduated from Waseda University as the best student in his grade and entered the Graduate School of Waseda University with a research topic on

high-temperature superconductivity High-temperature superconductors (abbreviated high-c or HTS) are defined as materials that behave as superconductors at temperatures above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. The adjective "high temperature" is only in respect to previ ...

. Working with his supervisor, he published a paper in July 1987. His supervisor said Hirose was a gifted scientist. At the same time, Hirose began to wonder if the knowledge he learned in the university could help the society.

Joining Aum Shinrikyo and leading secret assault rifle production

In 1988, Hirose read books written by

Shoko Asahara , born , was the founder and leader of the Japanese doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted of masterminding the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and was also involved in several other crimes. Asahara was sentenced ...

by accident. He was attracted by Asahara and began to correspond with Asahara. Per Asahara's request, in 1989, after graduating from graduate school and getting his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

, Hirose declined a job offered by

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

and joined Aum Shinrikyo, becoming an important person in this group. In the early 1990s, he produced around 1,000 assault rifles based on the

AK-74 The AK-74 (Russian: , tr. ''Avtomat Kalashnikova obraztsa 1974 goda'', lit. 'Kalashnikov assault rifle model 1974) is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974. While primarily associated with the Soviet U ...

. It's reported that Hirose once went to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

to test assault rifles produced by him.

Tokyo subway gas attack, arrest, trial and execution

In 1995, Hirose took part in the

. He was assigned to release the sarin in the train A777 on

Marunouchi Line The is a subway line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by Tokyo Metro. The line runs in a U-shape between Ogikubo Station in Suginami and Ikebukuro Station in Toshima, with a branch line between Nakano-Sakaue Station and Hōnanchō Station. The offic ...

. Hirose was arrested in the same year. In 2000, he was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. In 2006, his appeal was dismissed. On July 26, 2018, Hirose was executed by hanging in the

Tokyo Detention House The is a correctional facility in Katsushika, Tokyo. The prison, which is operated by the Ministry of Justice, is one of seven detention centres that carry out executions in Japan. It is used to detain people awaiting trial, convicted felons and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirose, Kenichi 1964 births 2018 deaths 21st-century executions by Japan Executed mass murderers Japanese people convicted of murder People executed by Japan by hanging People from Tokyo Tokyo Subway sarin attack perpetrators Waseda University alumni

Early life

Joining Aum Shinrikyo and leading secret assault rifle production

Tokyo subway gas attack, arrest, trial and execution

See also

References