Japan Marks 29th Anniversary of Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack

Jiji Press

16:31 JST, March 20, 2024

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japan on Wednesday marked the 29th anniversary of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult’s sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 14 people and injured more than 6,000.

At Tokyo Metro Co.’s Kasumigaseki Station, 16 station staff members offered a silent prayer around 8 a.m., close to the time of the attack. Shizue Takahashi, 77, a bereaved family member, visited the station to lay flowers around 10 a.m. “We are not in a situation where we can say the incident is over,” she said, calling for efforts to keep the attack from being forgotten.

The attack occurred during the morning rush hour of March 20, 1995. Aum Shinrikyo members released sarin in trains on the three lines of Tokyo Metro’s predecessor running through the station, close to the Kasumigaseki district where central government offices are concentrated.

At the station, two senior subway officials died, namely Takahashi’s husband, Kazumasa, then 50, and Tsuneo Hishinuma, then 51.

Over the sarin attack and other crimes by Aum Shinrikyo, 13 people were executed in July 2018, including former leader Chizuo Matsumoto, then 63, who went by the name of Shoko Asahara.

On March 13 this year, Tokyo District Court ordered the government to hand over the remains and hair of Matsumoto to his second daughter, but the government appealed against the order.

The government’s Public Security Examination Commission imposes restrictions on the activities of Aum Shinrikyo successor organization Aleph from March 2023, saying it has not made sufficient reports under the law to control organizations that committed indiscriminate mass murder.