Based on police investigations following the arrest of Japanese Red Army leader Fusako Shigenobu, this text reviews documents and media reports suggesting links between radical organizations, civic groups, and political influence operations within Japan.

2019-02-07.
Through analysis of items seized from the defendant Shigenobu, investigators determined that the Japanese Red Army regarded the civic organization Peace Boat as an affiliated group, which led authorities to conduct the present searches.
The following continues from the previous chapter.
★When Japanese Red Army leader Fusako Shigenobu was arrested, two supporters who were hospital employees in Takatsuki City were present and reportedly refused voluntary questioning by Osaka Prefectural Police, as previously reported in newspapers.
The hospital in question was Kōai Hospital in Takatsuki City, Osaka Prefecture.
It is a hospital specializing only in psychiatry and neurology and was said to function as a base for a Japanese Red Army support group.
The two employees present were Mamoru Yoshida (48) and Tadashi Matsuo (39).
Both were administrative staff members.
Yoshida was the husband of Setsuko Yoshida, the name used on a forged passport possessed by Shigenobu and an administrative employee of Kōai Hospital.
The hotel where the arrest took place had been reserved the day before under Yoshida’s name.
Public security information also indicated that he had contacted Shigenobu and former United Red Army member Kunio Bandō in China and Russia.
Matsuo was also an employee of Kōai Hospital and connected to the newspaper Jinmin Shimbun, to which Shigenobu contributed writings.
He had also visited the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, where the Japanese Red Army maintained a base.
Furthermore.
The founder of the hospital was reportedly a former member of the Red Army faction of the Communist League, the predecessor organization of the Japanese Red Army.
It was also said that the owner of the apartment in Nishinari Ward where Shigenobu had hidden was connected with the hospital.
Documents seized from Shigenobu by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Public Security Bureau included writings describing political influence operations in Japan, stating the intention to strengthen political influence by centering on the Social Democratic Party under its leader Takako Doi.
The resolution of the 5th Congress of the People’s Revolutionary Party dated August 15, 1999 included a statement about strengthening political influence through the civic group “Hope for the 21st Century.”
The party’s basic policy dated August 16, 2000 also contained references to joint operations with the Social Democratic Party and plans to build regional bases while developing the strength of the organization “Hope for the 21st Century.”
In connection with this, the joint investigation headquarters of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and Osaka Prefectural Police conducted searches of homes related to the civic group “Hope for the 21st Century.”
Among those searched were a former secretary to Social Democratic Party Diet member Nobuto Hosaka and Keiko Funaba, a ward assembly member in Shinagawa, Tokyo.
“Hope for the 21st Century” was established in Japan in 1995 and operated mainly in the Kanto and Kansai regions.
Tadashi Matsuo, the former hospital employee arrested for allegedly helping Shigenobu evade capture, was also a member of the group.
Excerpt from Yomiuri Shimbun.
“In the case in which Japanese Red Army leader Fusako Shigenobu obtained a passport under another person’s name and repeatedly entered and left the country, the joint investigation headquarters of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and Osaka Prefectural Police conducted simultaneous searches at nineteen locations across five prefectures, including the residence of a male city councilor in Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture, on suspicion of violations of the Passport Act.
According to the investigators, the locations searched were mainly residences of civic group members, and more than one hundred items including computers, floppy disks, and organizational publications were seized.
Analysis of Shigenobu’s belongings revealed that the Japanese Red Army regarded the civic organization Peace Boat as an affiliated organization, prompting the searches.”
This chapter continues.