‘Kirishima’ Said He Regretted String of 1970s Bombings in Japan

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:56 JST, January 31, 2024

A now deceased man who claimed to be one of the suspects in a series of bombings in the 1970s told police that he he had always lived alone, investigative sources said.

The man who identified himself as Satoshi Kirishima died at the age of 70 in a hospital on Monday.

The Metropolitan Police Department’s Public Security Bureau is in the process of confirming the man’s identity, while also investigating the circumstances surrounding the fugitive, including if he had any supporters.

The man was admitted to the hospital in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, under the alias Hiroshi Uchida in late January, according to investigators. After claiming that his real name was Satoshi Kirishima on the Jan.25, the police voluntarily interviewed him. When the investigators asked the man if he had any regret regarding the series of incidents, he replied, “Yes.”

Under the alias of Hiroshi Uchida, the man had been working as a live-in employee at a civil engineering company in Fujisawa in the same prefecture since several decades ago. He received his salary in cash and did not appear to have any bank accounts.

The man did not have a cell phone or driver’s license when hospitalized. His history of overseas travel has not been confirmed either.

The Public Security Bureau is investigating the man’s living conditions and conducting DNA tests with samples provided by several relatives of Kirishima to determine his identity. Regardless of the man’s death, if he is confirmed to have been Kirishima himself, the police will file charges to prosecutors on violation of the Criminal Regulations to Control Explosives.

Kirishima was a member of the extreme left-wing group East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front. He was wanted by the police for his involvement in the April 1975 bombing of a building in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, one in a series of corporate bombings in the 1970s.