is a leftist group in Japan. It was formed around 1980 and was involved with struggles related to

Narita Airport Narita International Airport ( ja, 成田国際空港, Narita Kokusai Kūkō) , also known as Tokyo-Narita, formerly and originally known as , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Haneda Airport ...

. There was long-running conflict between the government of Japan and an alliance of leftist activists who were opposed to the airport for ideological reasons with local farmers who did not wish their land to be appropriated.

History

In June 1999, Kakurōkyō split into two factions.Extremist murdered in knife attack August 31, 2000
''

Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'' Retrieved August 11, 2016 Members of the group are suspected of firing rockets at Narita airport on February 2, 1998. In February 2000 a member of the group was stabbed to death at JR Manazuru Station in

Kanagawa prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

. The three suspects were believed to also be members of the group. Another member was murdered in front of JR

Uguisudani Station is a railway station in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The name relates to a valley where formerly many Japanese bush warblers (''uguisu'') were found. The station is to the north of the Tokyo Nationa ...

in Tokyo on August 31, 2000, making a total of five activists murdered. The deaths continued until 2002, with eight members eventually being murdered. In 2003 and 2004 around the time of the

US invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

the group claimed responsibility for mortar attacks on

Yokota Air Base , is a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) and United States Air Force (USAF) base in the Tama Area, or Western Tokyo. It occupies portions of Akishima, Fussa, Hamura, Mizuho, Musashimurayama, and Tachikawa. The base houses 14,000 personnel ...

, the

Defense Agency The is an executive department of the Government of Japan responsible for preserving the peace and independence of Japan, and maintaining the country’s national security and the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The ministry is headed by the ...

in Tokyo and

Naval Air Facility Atsugi is a joint Japan-US naval air base located in the cities of Yamato and Ayase in Kanagawa, Japan. It is the largest United States Navy (USN) air base in the Pacific Ocean and once housed the squadrons of Carrier Air Wing Five (CVW-5), which dep ...

. Raids were made in response to the mortar attacks in 2010. In 2013 the group was believed to have been responsible for another attack on Yokota Air Base. In September 2015 three men were arrested for assaulting riot police during a protest against security legislation in front of the National Diet building in Tokyo. One of them was reported to be a Kakurōkyō member. In 2019, the arrest of Toyotona Numata was made, who was the suspect involved in conducting mortar attacks on Camp Zama and Yokota Air Base.

References

External links

Official Japanese site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kakurokyo 1980 establishments in Japan Communism in Japan Far-left politics in Japan Left-wing militant groups in Japan Organizations established in 1980 Terrorism in Japan