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Courtesy of Tokyo Fire Department Participants wear protective clothing in a training exercise simulating the release of a poisonous substance. (Part of the image has been modified.)
The Yomiuri Shimbun
17:42 JST, March 21, 2025
The Self-Defense Forces, police and other authorities across Japan have bolstered their abilities to deal with a terrorist incident involving radiological, biological or chemical weapons, based on lessons learned from the Aum Supreme Truth cult’s sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995.
These efforts have focused on enhancing the safety of first responders such as firefighters and overhauling the systems in place at medical institutions where victims of such an attack would be treated. However, the risks posed by a terrorist strike are becoming increasingly diverse.
The government in 2000 established the nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) terrorism countermeasures council that consisted of the deputy chief cabinet secretary for crisis management and top officials of relevant ministries and agencies. If a terror incident involving NBC weapons were to occur in Japan, a response room would be establish a response room at the Prime Minister’s Office.
That same year, counter-NBC terrorism squads were set up at the Metropolitan Police Department and the Osaka prefectural police. Currently, about 200 personnel are members of such specialist squads stationed at nine prefectural police departments.
Police and firefighting forces have been equipped with sealed protective clothing, toxic substance detectors and other gear, and the government is assisting in the purchase of such equipment for 800 facilities such as base hospitals that provide treatment in times of disaster.
About 1,000 Self-Defense Forces personnel have been placed in specialized units stationed in every division and brigade across the nation.
Countermeasures developed for the response to a terror attack involving chemical weapons have concentrated on providing rescue teams with protective clothing and decontamination equipment. This was prompted by the fact that about 10% of firefighters who engaged in rescue activities on the day of the sarin attack were affected by the chemical weapon. Since 2019, firefighters and police officers conducting rescue operations have been authorized to administer on-site injections of detoxicating agents for nerve agents such as sarin.
“Taking too long to decontaminate or put on protective clothing runs the risk of delaying efforts to save people’s lives,” said Hideaki Anan, a director of the Kanagawa Prefectural Hospital Association. “A balanced approach is needed. There should be more discussions on how rescue teams can respond flexibly depending on the circumstances.”
Aum also had been planning terror attacks using biological weapons such as botulinum toxin and anthrax. As one measure to counter a biological terror attack, the government has stockpiled some vaccines that can prevent symptoms of highly lethal smallpox from becoming severe.
Steps to combat terror attacks involving nuclear material include establishing systems for measuring radiation in preparation for an attack using a “dirty bomb” – a conventional weapon intended to radiologically contaminate an area.
Public complacency abounds
The low level of public awareness of such crisis was a major topic of discussion at a meeting of the Japanese Association for Disaster Medicine in Nagoya on March 8. This situation worried Tetsu Okumura, a director at the Japan Poison Information Center.
“If a full-out chemical weapon terror attack occurred now, it’s possible the death toll could be staggeringly high,” said Okumura, who treated some of the victims on the day of the sarin attack.
A Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry official spoke about an October 2023 incident in which sulfuric acid and nitric acid leaked from a passenger’s bag inside a JR Tohoku Shinkansen train. A passenger approached the liquid and took photos of it with their mobile phone.
“If that liquid had been sarin, it would’ve been a repeat of what happened [in 1995],” the ministry official said.
Medical drugs also pose risk
In the United States, where fentanyl is comparatively easy to acquire for medical purposes, there have been calls to have the drug classified as a weapon of mass destruction.
Excessive intake of fentanyl can result in death. An armed group in 2002 took hundreds of audience members at a Moscow theater hostage. Russian authorities released fentanyl gas to subdue the assailants in an operation that left more than 120 of the hostages dead.
Nerve agents of a different type to sarin have been used in assassinations and other incidents. It is assumed these agents, in some cases, cannot be picked up by basic detectors.
“It’s important that we don’t have any preconceptions when dealing with the diversifying range of terrorist attacks,” said Mitsuo Onishi, head of the medical treatment department at the National Hospital Organization Osaka National Hospital’s emergency and critical care center.
