Look around, if you will, for a waste receptacle on any station platform in the Tokyo metropolitan area; you won't find one. Their disappearance, a precautionary measure against urban terrorism, can be dated to the immediate aftermath of the nerve gas attack on the city's subway system by members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult on March 20, 1995.
Writing in Shukan Bunshun (Nov. 26), political commentator Masaru Sato reminds readers that "Japan is the only country to have suffered a terrorist attack using weapons of mass destruction."
However, what we must ask ourselves now is, "Will the lessons learned from that incident two decades ago make Japan any safer now?" More specifically, any safer from attacks by the bloodthirsty minions of the Islamic State group?