Tokyo Sarin Attack Victims Remembered on 31st Anniversary

Tokyo, March 20 (Jiji Press)–Victims of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult’s sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system were remembered Friday, the 31st anniversary of the incident that left 14 people dead and more than 6,000 injured. At Kasumigaseki Station, one of the attack sites, a flower stand was set up. Shizue Takahashi, 79, who lost her husband, and others mourned the victims there. At 8:10 a.m., close to the time of the attack, 16 station staff members offered a silent prayer. Takahashi arrived at the place around 10 a.m. and laid flowers. “I can’t stop my anger because (Aum Shinrikyo) successor organizations continue to exist under new names,” she said. “I want to warn people who don’t know about the incident.” On March 20, 1995, Aum Shinrikyo members sprayed sarin in train cars on Tokyo Metro Co.’s Hibiya, Marunouchi and Chiyoda lines. At Kasumigaseki Station, a stop for all three lines, Takahashi’s husband, Kazumasa, then 50, who was deputy head of the station, and Tsuneo Hishinuma, then 51, who was deputy head of the Yoyogi train district, were killed. Over a series of crimes committed by Aum Shinrikyo, including the sarin attack, 13 people were executed in July 2018, including former leader Chizuo Matsumoto, 63. Since March 2023, the government’s Public Security Examination Commission has been implementing recurrence prevention measures to restrict the activities of major successor organization Aleph, on the grounds that the group failed to fulfill its reporting obligation under the law to control organizations that committed indiscriminate mass murder. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]