Photo/Illutration Chukaku-ha members and other activists gather in Kyoto in December 1990 to oppose a planned visit to the Kansai region by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko after accession ceremonies. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Takeo Shimizu, leader of a hardcore radical group responsible for violent acts that claimed more than 100 lives, recently emerged in public after half a century of lying low.

Officers of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Public Security Bureau were waiting for Shimizu, 83, chairman of Chukaku-ha (middle core faction), on Sept. 6 outside a facility in a residential district of Tokyo’s Arakawa Ward, where the group was holding a meeting.

Dozens of people surrounded Shimizu when he came out of the venue, and a tense and sometimes loud standoff continued for about 10 minutes until Shimizu, shielded by Chukaku-ha members, left in a car from a parking lot about 5 meters away.

Chukaku-ha is blamed for a string of armed assaults, bombings and destruction of infrastructure since the 1960s designed to further its communist cause.

Shimizu’s reappearance after so many decades shocked police departments across the nation, which had long sought to track him down and question him about his involvement in the group’s violent actions.

A senior police officer said Shimizu apparently decided to come out of hiding to “expand the organization and solidify its cohesion.”

Police list Chukaku-ha as a “violent ultra-leftist group” capable of staging vicious attacks.

Chukaku-ha was founded in 1963. The National Police Agency estimates the group had 4,700 members as of January 2020.

The extremist group, a staunch opponent of the emperor system, is responsible for 124 attacks across Japan in 1990, including the launch of a projectile into the grounds of the Kyoto Imperial Palace.

It has also long been entangled in a strife with Kakumaru-ha (Revolutionary Marxist Faction), a splinter group. The conflict is believed to have claimed more than 100 lives.

Shimizu served as the group’s de facto leader from its early years, although he only became its chairman in 1997, sources said.

Police had long sought to question Shimizu about violent acts attributed to Chukaku-ha, but he stopped appearing at meetings and demonstrations and went underground in 1969.

Chukaku-ha members told The Asahi Shimbun that he went into hiding because he was “involved in covert activities.” That, in their words, referred to activities to protect the group from Kakumaru-ha as well as the police. However, they declined to provide further details.

Speculation abounds as to why Shimizu decided to suddenly reappear in public.

Shimizu, for his part, explained during the meeting that he did so to express “remorse” and “self-criticism” over his own guiding principles of recent years. Chukaku-ha members construed his words as an apology for his failure to revitalize the group’s activities.

Not all the members were happy about Shimizu’s leadership, sources said.

One heckler shouted out at the meeting venue, “You should criticize yourself through and through!”

Police believe Shimizu showed up to solidify Chukaku-ha’s internal cohesion. An apology from the man once deemed so charismatic was intended to help let off steam and lift morale within the group, sources said.

Chukaku-ha in recent years has abstained from staging guerrilla attacks and broadened its arena of activities to include campaigns against nuclear power generation as well as labor issues. It also operates a YouTube channel to showcase its organization and activities.

“We will remain on alert to ensure the group does not engage in illegal acts,” said a senior police officer. “We will, after all, take appropriate action if it ever does so.”

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