Only prompt action by subway employees two months later prevented clouds of lethal cyanide gas from killing commuters at Tokyo's Shinjuku station.

ECONOMIST: The crazies and their poison

The Seibu Saison group of companies, of which Seiyu is the nucleus, owned track running from the Chichibu mountains west of Tokyo to Ikebukuro and Shinjuku in the city centre although the railway and the retailer parted company in the 1970s.

ECONOMIST: Japanese retailing

The hyper-efficient public transit system zips people around and between cities, with more than 300 bullet train departures daily between Tokyo and Osada and nearly 2 million commuters rushing each day through the busiest station, Shinjuku, one of Tokyo's most crowded commercial areas.

FORBES: Japan's Green Gold Mine

At 6:30 p.m. a train from Shinjuku station, one of the busiest in Tokyo, was packed with people rushing home before a possible blackout.

FORBES: Tokyo Streets Quiet As Foreigners Flee, Locals Hunker Down

Occupying the top 14 floors of the Shinjuku Park Tower, the sleek Park Hyatt Tokyo boasts commanding views and was a hotel of choice for director Sofia Coppola before the film.

CNN: 9 glamorous movie-star hotels

The train passed Shinjuku, Yotsuya, Ochanomizu, and arrived at Tokyo Central Station, the end of the line.

NEWYORKER: Town of Cats

One of Isozaki's other pet hates is the Tokyo Metropolitan Office complex (Tange Kenzo, 1991), which juts aggressively skyward in the raffish Shinjuku part of town.

CNN: AFTER THE BANG