Prayers Offered to Victims of Tokyo Sarin Gas Attack; Flower Stands Set Up at 6 Tokyo Metro Stations

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:03 JST, March 20, 2025

Families of the victims of the 1995 sarin gas attack by the Aum Supreme Truth cult prayed for the souls of the dead in front of flower stands set up at six of the affected Tokyo Metro Co. stations on Thursday, which marked the 30th anniversary of the incident.

At Kasumigaseki Station, where two station workers were killed, about 10 staff members offered a silent prayer at around 8 a.m., close to the time of the attack.

Shizue Takahashi whose husband, then 50, had been the assistant station manager at the time of the incident, visited the station and offered flowers at around 10 a.m.

“Coming here reminds me vividly of the day of the attack, and the feelings of sadness return,” Takahashi, 78, said to reporters afterward. “I want to keep working to ensure that the incident is not forgotten.”

On March 20, 1995, sarin nerve gas was released in trains on three subway lines, killing 13 and injuring more than 6,000. A woman who had suffered from severe aftereffects for 25 years died in 2020 from an anoxic brain injury caused by sarin poisoning.