A man thought to be the suspect on a wanted list for one of a series of terrorist bombings in the 1970s lived in Kanagawa Prefecture as a building firm employee for decades under a false name, investigative sources said Sunday.

The man, who has been hospitalized with terminal cancer and earlier this week confessed to being Satoshi Kirishima, a member of an extreme left-wing group, lived under the name Hiroshi Uchida, the sources said.

Screenshot taken from the website of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department shows Satoshi Kirishima. (Kyodo)

The man does not possess a health insurance card or driver's license and has been receiving cancer treatment at a hospital in Kamakura at his own expense.

Police are investigating how he settled in Kanagawa Prefecture and whether anyone helped him survive on the run, the sources said. The police posted photographs of the man at various public locations such as stations in their efforts over the years to trace his whereabouts.

According to the sources, the man initially claimed to be Hiroshi Uchida at the hospital when he was admitted earlier this month.

But he identified himself as Satoshi Kirishima on Thursday. Due to his deteriorating health condition, the police are expected to question him on a voluntary basis and send the case to prosecutors without arresting him.

Kirishima, who would now be 70, was a member of the radical group East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front. He has long been wanted on suspicion that he planted and detonated a homemade bomb in a building in Tokyo's Ginza district on April 19, 1975.

The terrorist group Kirishima belonged to carried out a number of attacks on Japanese companies and entities, including the bombing of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s headquarters in central Tokyo in 1974 that killed eight people and injured 165.

The group also targeted Japanese companies operating overseas, including major trading house Mitsui & Co. and construction companies Taisei Corp. and Kajima Corp., as a protest against Japan's military and commercial expansion in East Asia before and after World War II.

In May 1975, police arrested eight individuals over their involvement in the attacks. As some suspects, including 75-year-old Ayako Daidoji, are still on the run overseas, the statute of limitations in Kirishima's case has been suspended.

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