Among a long list of big stories that Japanese newspapers have suppressed or downplayed in recent years are court testimony that top LDP officials took bribes, a confession from a policeman belonging to the AumSupremeTruth cult, new information about Emperor Hirohito's responsibility for the conduct of World War II and numerous shady deals linking Japan's (still unreformed) banks, politicians and gangsters.
That was in March 1995, when members of the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) sect preaching a bizarre distortion of Hindu, Buddhist and Judaeo-Christian beliefs unleashed a nerve gas called sarin in the Tokyo subway, killing 12 people and injuring several thousand.