Pair Tied to Cult Arrested for Allegedly Seeking Secrets

A soldier and a researcher for a major military contractor were arrested Thursday in what news reports said was a plot to steal weapon secrets for the cult accused in the nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subways.

Police would say only that Hideo Nakamoto, a senior researcher for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., and Sgt. Tatsuya Toyama of the Self-Defense Forces were accused of trespassing at the research center in Hiroshima where Nakamoto worked.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said it does not keep military secrets at that facility.

Also Thursday, police raided the cult’s Tokyo headquarters, encountering no resistance from about 10 followers inside. There was no immediate word of what they were looking for. Such raids have been happening almost daily.

Dozens of Aum Supreme Truth members, including cult leader Shoko Asahara, have been arrested since the nerve gas attack March 20 that killed 12 people and sickened 5,500 others. Police say they will charge Asahara and other cult leaders with murder and attempted murder.

Police said they believe that the Mitsubishi break-in was planned by Yoshihiro Inoue, “intelligence minister” in the cult pseudo-government set up to run the world after a predicted apocalypse.

The newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun said Inoue participated in the Dec. 28 attempt to infiltrate Mitsubishi, which builds tanks, fighter aircraft, navy ships and other weapons.

News accounts said Nakamoto snuck Toyama into the center, where the soldier then used a portable computer in an attempt to steal weapons secrets from corporate computers.

The military on Thursday dismissed Toyama, 27, a member of the elite 1st Parachute Regiment, shortly before he was arrested.