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At least 33 stations on three metro lines were affected by the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, according to analysis by the Yomiuri Shimbun of victim data originally compiled by the National Police Agency.
On the 30th anniversary of the incident on Thursday, the tally once again highlighted the extensive damage caused by this act of indiscriminate chemical terrorism at the heart of Japan’s capital.
On March 20, 1995, five members of the Aum Supreme Truth cult released sarin, a highly poisonous nerve gas, on five trains on the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (now Tokyo Metro Co.) Hibiya, Chiyoda and Marunouchi subway lines heading toward Kasumigaseki Station, killing 13 people. In 2020, a woman who had been fighting illness caused by the gas also passed away.
The NPA compiled a document listing the genders and ages of the 6,286 people affected by the attack, as well as where they were when it happened. The Yomiuri Shimbun obtained and analyzed data on the passengers for whom there is a recorded location at the time of the incident, such as “in a station” or “on a train.”
The results indicated that there were victims at 33 stations along the three lines. By station, the largest number of victims, 1,663, were reported at Kodenmacho Station on the Hibiya line, followed by 700 at Kasumigaseki Station, where the three lines converge, and 324 at Tsukiji Station on the Hibiya line.
On the Hibiya line, cult member Yasuo Koike, then Yasuo Hayashi, released three bags of liquid sarin — one more bag than the other perpetrators — which is thought to have inflicted greater damage. Koike was later executed at the age of 60.
