TOKYO, Nov. 7–(Kyodo) _ The National Police Agency said Sunday it will ask visitors to the Yahoo Japan website to provide information on five suspects on a wanted list by posting ads seeking such data starting Monday.
The five include three former followers of the AUM Shinrikyo cult: Makoto Hirata, 40, Katsuya Takahashi, 47, and Naoko Kikuchi, 33.
Takahashi and Kikuchi are wanted over their alleged involvement in the March 1995 fatal sarin attacks in the Tokyo subway system. Hirata is wanted for the alleged abduction and murder of a notary public official in February 1995.
Two more suspects being investigated by the NPA are 37-year-old murder suspect Ryoji Nagata, wanted by the Hokkaido police, and 29-year-old Noriyuki Miyata, wanted by the Hiroshima police on suspicion of violating the firearms and sword control law.
The ads featuring the five will be posted on the portal site’s pages, excluding the top page, free of charge for up to one month.
The ads will be linked to the websites of the relevant prefectural police, the agency said.
The NPA has secured Yahoo Japan’s cooperation in line with its campaign that started at the beginning of November to enhance efforts to find and arrest suspects on wanted lists.
Yahoo previously cooperated with authorities in July when it posted free of charge on its website a photo and information on a murder suspect wanted by the Tokushima police.
Yahoo Japan has 13 million members, which it claims gives it the largest membership of any Japanese Internet portal.