Terror in Tokyo tells of the attack on 20 March 1995 on the Tokyo Subway using Sarin gas. In the attack members of the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) cult carried six packages onto Tokyo subway trains and punctured the packages with umbrella tips, releasin
The attack was directed against trains passing through Kasumigaseki and Nagatachō, where the Diet (Japanese parliament) is headquartered in Tokyo.
The group, led by Shoko Asahara, had already carried out several assassinations and terrorist attacks using sarin, including the Matsumoto sarin attack nine months earlier. They had also produced several other nerve agents, including VX, and attempted to produce botulinum toxin and had perpetrated several failed acts of bioterrorism. Asahara had been made aware of a police raid scheduled for March 22 and had planned the Tokyo subway attack in order to hinder police investigations into the cult and perhaps spark the apocalypse they believed in. The Leader Also wanted to start a Third World War.
In the raid following the attack, police arrested many senior members of the cult. Police activity continued throughout the summer, and over 200 members were arrested, including Asahara. Thirteen of the senior Aum management were sentenced to death and later executed, many others were given prison sentences up to life.
The attack remains the deadliest terrorist incident in Japan as defined by modern standards.