Fuji TV produces drama about sarin attack victim

Fuji TV plans to air a documentary-drama next month revolving around the Matsumoto incident, an act of domestic terrorism that occurred during the 1990s. This will be the first time that the incident is dramatized on television.

On June 27, 1994, toxic sarin gas was released in a neighborhood in Matsumoto, Nagano. The incident resulted in the death of several people and hundreds of others harmed. Although the act was later linked to the religious group Aum Shinrikyo and their infamous sarin attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, investigators in the Matsumoto incident initially suspected one of the attack’s victims, a man named Yoshiyuki Kouno. Because Kouno was discovered to be storing pesticides in his home, the media began painting him as the perpetrator, resulting in Kouno being harassed in the form of hate mail and death threats.

Fuji TV’s drama will focus on Kouno’s experience, along with his sick wife and his three children. Actor Ken Ishiguro (43) will portray Kouno, while Yuki Matsushita (40) plays Kouno’s wife, who passed away last year. Yosuke Asari (21) and Atsuko Maeda (17) have also been cast.

The drama will air in Fuji TV’s “Kinyo Prestige” block (Friday 9:00pm) on June 26, one day before the 15th anniversary of the Matsumoto incident.

Source:
Sankei Sports