TOKYO -- Yukio Mishima, an internationally known Japanese novelist, committed hara-kiri ceremonial suicide after leading a group of rightists in a raid on an army base in Tokyo today and wounding six soldiers, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation said.
The group charged into the Ichigaya station of the Japanese self defense forces, slashed at soldiers who tried to stop them and took over the commanding officer's office, police reported.
Mishima, who has been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize, then appeared on the balcony of the building and delivered a speech to 2,000 soldiers who surrounded it. "Japan's present politics are full of corruption," he yelled.
According to the Japan Broadcasting Corporation's report, Michima, 46, then committed hara-kiri with a short sword.
