Fusako Shigenobu
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Fusako Shigenobu (重信 房子; Shigenobu Fusako, born September 3, 1945), was the leader of the Japanese Red Army. She was arrested by the Japanese police in 2000 after returning to Japan secretly.
Shigenobu was born in Tokyo, Japan. She worked part-time for Kikkoman Corporation and took night school at Meiji University after she graduated high school.
She left Japan in 1971 to travel around Europe where she came in contact with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and set up the what was later to be called the Japanese Red Army in Lebanon in February of that year. She was placed on the Metropolitan Police Department's international wanted list for the seizure of the French Embassy in The Hague, the Netherlands in 1974. In that incident, three Red Army members took 11 people hostage and forced the government of France to release one of their members. Her goal was to establish bases around the world and to start a revolution in Japan.
She is also known by the surname Okudaira, which she registered herself in Japan after faking a marriage to Takeshi Okudaira, another Red Army member who died during an attack in Tel Aviv.
She was arrested in Osaka in November 2000 outside the Takatsuki Kyoto Hotel where she was staying at the time. The arrest came as somewhat of a surprise since she had been evading Japanese authorities for 25 years and was believed to be living somewhere in Lebanon, although she had been living in Osaka since July 2000 using her friend's name. After her arrest, she shouted to reporters, "I am determined to fight on."
During her trial hearing in April 2001, Shigenobu stated that she was disbanding the Japanese Red Army, and said she would continue her fight through legal means. In February of 2006, she was convicted of kidnapping and attempted murder over a 1974 attack on the French embassy in The Hague, receiving a 20 year jail term.
Shigenobu has one daughter, Mei Shigenobu, whose father was Palestinian. In May 2001, Fusako Shigenobu published Ringo-no Ki-no Shita-de Anata-wo Umo-to Kimeta (I decided to give birth to you under an apple tree) as a message to her daughter.
