Whenever she goes to the Tokyo District Court, Shizue Takahashi must pass the spot on the Kasumigaseki subway station platform where her husband, Kazumasa, 50, collapsed and fell into a fatal coma on March 20, 1995.
Despite her recurring pain and anger, Takahashi, 57, has attended roughly half, or 125, of the trial sessions of Aum Shinrikyo guru Shoko Asahara, who stands accused of masterminding the cult's heinous crimes, including the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed her deputy stationmaster husband and 11 others.
But ahead of the Friday court verdict on Asahara, Takahashi said that over the course of his marathon trial, she has come to ponder whether all of his followers should be sentenced to hang, although she remains adamant that Asahara himself should get the death penalty.