One of Japan’s most wanted fugitives dies in hospital after 50 years on the run – Observer

Satoshi Kirishima, a member of a far-left group and one of Japan’s most wanted fugitives, who was arrested last week after more than half a century on the run, died this Monday in hospital due to cancer.

Kirishima died at the age of 70 in a hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, due to terminal cancerJapanese authorities revealed this Monday.

The fugitive was arrested last week for alleged involvement in a series of bomb attacks against large Japanese companies in 1974 and 1975, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsui.

Kirishima had been wanted since then, with his image posted on search panels at police stations in Japan.

Before dying, the fugitive recognized his identity and revealed that he had worked for years as a construction contractor in a prefecture near Tokyo, under a false name.

The fugitive was part of the so-called Anti-Japanese Armed Front of East Asia (Eaajaf), a Japanese far-left terrorist organization of an anarchist nature, which operated between 1972 and 1975.

The incident at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1974 was one of the most notable, as it was committed in broad daylight, causing the death of eight people, with another 165 seriously injured.

Kirishima was allegedly responsible for placing and detonating a homemade explosive at the Korea Industrial Economic Research Institute, in the central Ginza district of Tokyo, in 1975.

The group, which carried out a series of 12 such attacks, was disbanded after authorities detained most of its members, many of whom had links to or had joined the communist group the Japanese Red Army.

So far, eight Eaajaf members have been formally charged, two of whom have been sentenced to death.