[The following statement was issued October 2 by the International Bureau of the Japan Revolutionary Communist League, Japanese section of the Fourth International.]
Comrade Shuji Sugawara, central leader of the Japan Communist Youth (the Trotskyist youth group in Japan), died September 21 of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 29 years old. His sudden death came just after the fourth national convention of the JCY, where he had been reelected national secretary.
Comrade Sugawara had been a political activist since he entered Tohoku University in 1968. A leader of the student move. ment in the northern city of Sendai, he joined the JRCL in 1970 and began working full time for the League in 1974. He moved to Tokyo in 1976 when he was elected national secretary of the JCY at its second convention. Since then, he played a key role as a national leader of the JCY and JRCL, including as a national organi. zer for the struggle against the opening of Narita Airport in March 1978.
He is survived by his wife Setsuko, a leading activist in the Socialist Women's Council, and by a three-year-old son.
Comrades from the Tokyo area as well as other parts of Japan came to the funeral ceremony, and over 300 comrades attended a memorial meeting for Comrade Sugawara organized by the JRCL and the JCY.
It is with deep regret that we announce this sad news to our comrades around the world.
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