For almost 50 years, the image of Satoshi Kirishima, a known fugitive wanted for deadly bombings in the 1970s, has been a common fixture at police stations across Japan. However, recent reports suggest that Kirishima has passed away shortly after being captured. 
Satoshi Kirishima
National Police Agency
Last week, the 70-year-old revealed his identity after he admitted himself to hospital under a false name for cancer treatment, according to Japanese media. The reports caused a stir in Japan, where his youthful face has become widely recognized, inspiring viral Halloween costumes.
But before police could complete DNA tests, the man thought to be Kirishima passed away on Monday morning. “Investigators looked into and eliminated past tips, but there is a very high possibility that this individual is actually Kirishima,” a police source told the Asahi newspaper.
Details are emerging of how Kirishima may have been hiding in plain sight for decades. Born in Hiroshima in January 1954, Kirishima attended university in Tokyo, where he became involved in radical far-left politics. He joined the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front, a militant group responsible for several bombings in Tokyo between 1972 and 1975. In 1974, the group carried out an attack at the headquarters of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, resulting in the deaths of eight people.
The group operated in three cells with fancy codenames: “Wolf,” “Fangs of the Earth,” and “Scorpion,” Kirishima’s alias. His wanted posters include physical descriptors such as being 160 cm tall (5 ft 3), “thick and rather large” lips, and very short-sighted. The summary on Japan’s National Police Agency website outlines his involvement in a bomb attack in Tokyo’s Ginza district in April 1975, which did not result in any fatalities.
“I want to meet my death with my real name,” he told hospital staff according to NHK.
His picture taken on January 26, 2024 in a train station of Chuo district in Tokyo shows a poster of Satoshi Kirishima, who was a member of The East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front, a radical leftist organization responsible for bombing attacks in Japan’s capital in the 1970s.
PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images
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