Nonprofit supporting victims of 1995 Tokyo sarin attack to disband

The Japan Times/March 3, 2025

A nonprofit group helping victims of the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult plans to disband at the end of March.
The Tokyo-based Recovery Support Center, which conducts mass health examinations for victims, will end its activities due to the decreasing number of people receiving checkups and the aging of staff members.

"Victims have gradually come to terms with their mental and physical problems," group head Shinsuke Kimura, 80, said last week. "We decided to disband at the 30-year milestone."

The Tokyo subway attack occurred on the morning of March 20, 1995, when sarin gas was released in train cars heading in five directions on three subway lines.

The Recovery Support Center was established in March 2002 to improve medical examinations for victims and research the impact of sarin on people's health. Volunteer doctors had been providing checkups since 1996, but the center was created as many victims complained of problems with their eyes even five years after the examinations began.

"The symptoms of sarin poisoning were believed to be temporary but were actually persistent," Kimura said. "There needed to be a system to check on victims over the long term."

Neuro-ophthalmologists and psychiatrists came together to create the group. Kimura, who had been supporting people related to the lawyer and his family killed in Aum Shinrikyo's 1989 attack, assumed the center's leadership.

The center provided annual checkups, including eye examinations and counseling, as well as seminars on aromatherapy and acupressure massages. It also created spaces for victims to socialize.

Checkups ended in 2023 due to a decline in participation and the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 2,700 people were examined, including checkups by volunteer doctors before the group was established.

The Recovery Support Center has also conducted annual surveys of victims' health issues, such as symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since 2000, accumulating data on a total of 7,600 people. Hiroshima University and other researchers used the data to publish research in 2020 on the link between victims experiences and PTSD.

Kimura said that the group is considering future uses of the data, including providing them to researchers.

"They are valuable materials showing sarin's impact on the human body," he said. "We hope they can be used as a precedent if a similar incident occurs."

The group's dissolution was approved by a vote at its general meeting last November and reported to its roughly 1,000 members in the end-February issue of its newsletter.

Many members praised the group, saying, "The center's existence helped me mentally" and "It constantly gave me a sense of security."

"In the beginning, there were concerns over funding and relationships with victims, so we got by year by year," said Yoko Yamashiro, 76, who has been a staff member at the center since its establishment. "I am proud we've been able to continue."

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