50 Years On the Lam: Kirishima Satoshi, Japanese Bombing Suspect, Dies in Hospital

Kirishima Satoshi, a member of a notorious ’70s terrorist group, may have finally been found after nearly 5 decades in hiding.

Breaking 1/29/2024: The man claiming to be Kirishima Satoshi has died in the hospital, apparently due to complications from stomach cancer. He was 70 years old. Police are still confirming the man’s alleged identity.

For long decades, Kirishima Satoshi’s bespectacled, long-haired visage has graced wanted posters in police boxes across Japan.

The photo shows Kirishima as he was around the period he first became a wanted man: 1975. Back then, he was a member of the “Scorpion” cell of the now-infamous far-left terrorist organization known as the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front. (東アジア反日武装戦線.) After a series of deadly corporate bombings by the EAAJAF, most of its leadership was arrested. Kirishima Satoshi, however, went to ground. Remarkably, he remained on the lam for an incredible half-century.

That is, it seems, until today.

The man believed to be Kirishima is no longer as youthful as his outdated wanted posters suggest. Now 70 years old, the individual checked himself into a hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture not long ago. He has cancer, believed to be terminal; he was at the…