Asahi Reporter Remembered 38 Years after Gun Attack

Jiji Press

10:23 JST, May 4, 2025

NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo (Jiji Press) — Saturday marked the 38th anniversary of a gun attack on the Asahi Shimbun major Japanese daily’s Hanshin bureau in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, that killed one reporter and seriously injured another.

Some 330 people including local residents visited the bureau to pay tribute to the victim, Tomohiro Kojiri, then 29.

On the evening of May 3, 1987, a man wearing a balaclava broke into the bureau and shot Kojiri and his colleague, Hyoe Inukai, on the second floor with a shotgun. Kojiri died in the attack, and Inukai suffered serious injuries. A group calling itself “Sekihotai” (red revenge squad) claimed responsibility for the attack.

“He was a hardworking and warm person,” recalled Keiko Yoshikawa, 67, who was interviewed by Kojiri about a year before the incident. “I think he wanted to work more as a reporter,” said Yoshikawa, a resident of Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, which neighbors Hyogo.

Fuku Nomura, a 19-year-old student at Kindai University from Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan, who wants to become a journalist, visited the reference room on the third floor of the bureau. “When I saw the vivid exhibits, I realized once again that the suppression of speech through violence should never be allowed.”

On Saturday, officials of Asahi Shimbun and others offered silent prayers at 8:15 p.m., the exact time when the attack occurred 38 years ago.

A series of attacks on the Asahi Shimbun occurred around the time of the May 1987 shooting. The status of limitations, however, has expired on all of the cases, which remain unsolved.