By HIRAKU HIGA/ Staff Writer
February 27, 2024 at 18:52 JST
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department identified a man who died in a hospital as the fugitive Satoshi Kirishima, the long-wanted suspect in a series of bomb attacks targeting major companies in 1974 and 1975.
Five cases were sent to prosecutors on Feb. 27 on suspicion of violating the Explosives Control Law and attempted murder, almost a month after Kirishima's death. He was 70 years old.
According to investigative sources, the man was admitted to a hospital in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, in early January under the name Hiroshi Uchida.
He was suffering from terminal stomach cancer.
On Jan. 25, he disclosed his real name to the hospital staff, saying, “In the end, I want to die as ‘Satoshi Kirishima.’”
The man provided information during questioning by police that only Kirishima himself could have known, including details about the attacks and his family background.
He was also found to have been living and working at a construction company in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, under the name Uchida for about 40 years.
The man died on Jan. 29.
Police conducted DNA tests on him and several of his relatives.
On Feb. 2, police searched his home near the company for items that could identify the man. They also spoke with people related to him.
Police then determined that Hiroshi Uchida was indeed Satoshi Kirishima.
Kirishima was a member of “sasori” (scorpion) unit at the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front, an extremist group tied to a series of bombings in the 1970s.
He had been a fugitive for almost 50 years since the bombings and was placed on the National Police Agency’s list of wanted persons of importance.
After coming forward, Kirishima told police, “I had worked day-labor jobs in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, before living and working at the construction company in Fujisawa,”
He said that he had not been in contact with members of the extremist group and that he had lived alone throughout his half-century of life on the run.
The extremist group claimed responsibility for 12 bombings targeting general contractors and other organizations in the mid-1970s, including a blast at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. that killed eight people.
Kirishima is suspected of being involved in bombing at a building of the Economic Research Institute of Korea in Tokyo’s Ginza district in April 1975. He was placed on the wanted list the following month.
OTHER SUSPECTS STILL AT LARGE
Kirishima was sent to prosecutors on suspicion of involvement in the Ginza bombing and four other bombings against Hazama Corp., a major general constructor, between February and April 1975.
These incidents resulted in serious injuries.
According to the sources, Kirishima denied involvement in the Ginza bombing.
He did, however, indicate his involvement in at least one of the Hazama bombings, the sources said.
The statute of limitations for these five crimes Kirishima is thought to have committed has been suspended because other alleged accomplices have fled overseas.
Police arrested nine of the 10 members of the extremist group who allegedly involved in the series of bombings.
Two of those arrested, including Ayako Daidoji, 75, were released as an “extralegal measure,” part of a deal demanded by the Japanese Red Army, which hijacked a Japan Airlines plane in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1977.
They have since fled abroad and police are continuing their investigations.
Kirishima was the only suspect who had never been arrested.
7 BOMBING CASES KIRISHIMA WAS ALLEGEDLY INVOLVED IN
Dec. 23, 1974, Kajima Corp.: Case sent to prosecutors in 2004, not indicted.
Feb. 28, 1975, Hazama Corp. headquarters 9F: one seriously injured, the statute of limitations suspended because alleged accomplices fled overseas.
Feb. 28, 1975, Hazama Corp. headquarters 6F: The statute of limitations suspended, case sent to prosecutors
Feb. 28, 1975, Hazama Corp. Omiya plant: The statute of limitations suspended, case sent to prosecutors
April 19, 1975, Economic Research Institute of Korea: The statute of limitations suspended, case sent to prosecutors
April 27, 1975, Hazama Corp. Edogawa workplace: one seriously injured, the statute of limitations suspended, case sent to prosecutors
May 4, 1975, Keisei Edogawabashi bridge construction site: case sent to prosecutors in 2004, not indicted
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