First responders including police and fire fighters conducted a drill at a Tokyo subway station on Thursday, the first of its kind held at an actual transit facility.
Around 300 specialists responded to a hypothetical emergency involving sarin nerve gas at Hibiya Station, which is adjacent to the city's central government district. They also conducted a simulated decontamination exercise.
The drill came ahead of the 20th anniversary, next March, of the Aum Shinrikyo cult's 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway.
Tamotsu Imai, a 46-year-old businessman who played the part of an evacuee, said it's important that agencies work well together in the event of a terrorist attack.
The deadly subway sarin attack, which left 13 people dead and sickened around 6,300, took place on March 20, 1995, when Aum Shinrikyo members ruptured plastic bags containing sarin during the morning rush hour.