Aum Shinrikyo has notified residents of the Tokyo apartment building where senior cult leader Fumihiro Joyu resides that he will leave within a month, an official of Kita Ward said Monday.
The notice, dated Saturday and signed by an Aum follower who moved into the apartment before Joyu did on Oct. 8, said the top Aum official is staying at the apartment on a "temporary" basis and that he himself will leave by the end of November.
Last Monday, Kita Ward set up a task force headed by ward chief Masao Kitamoto to deal with incoming Aum members and work out measures to prevent the apartment from becoming the cult's new headquarters.
On Sept. 20, Joyu evacuated Aum's Yokohama branch and moved to a three-story building in Tokyo's Adachi Ward.
He lived in the branch after being released from Hiroshima Prison in late December, where he served a three-year term for perjury and falsification of documents.
The Yokohama District Court on Sept. 6 ordered Aum to vacate the Yokohama branch, which is an apartment building, to satisfy the demands of the building's residents.