Red Army Faction in Japan
Shigenobu had been a leading member of the Red Army Faction (Sekigun-ha) in Japan, whose roots lay in the militant new-left Communist League. Advocating imminent revolution, they set up their own group, declaring war on the state in September 1969. The police quickly arrested many of them, including founder and intellectual leader Takaya Shiomi, who was in jail by 1970. The Sekigun lost about 200 members, and the remnants merged with a Maoist group to form the Rengo Sekigun or United Red Army in July, 1971. This group became notable during the Asama-Sanso incident, when it slaughtered twelve of its own members in a training camp hideout on Mount Haruna, after a week long siege involving hundreds of police. Fusako Shigenobu had left Japan with only a handful of dedicated people, but her group is said to have had about 40 members at its height and was from the Lod airport massacre on one of the best-known armed leftist groups in the world. The Japanese Red Army, Nihon Sekigun from 1971 had very close ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). By 1972 the United Red Army in Japan was finished and the Shigenobu group dependent on the PFLP for financing, training and weaponry.
In April 2001, Shigenobu issued a statement from detention declaring the Japanese Red Army had disbanded. A 2011 NPR report claimed some of the people associated with this group were imprisoned in a highly restrictive Communication Management Unit.
The National Police Agency publicly stated that a successor group to the JRA was founded called Movement Rentai.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Red Army
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