OSAKA -- Police on Tuesday arrested two supporters of Japanese Red Army founder Fusako Shigenobu for allegedly harboring the fugitive while in Japan.

Akiyoshi Kataoka, a 45-year-old senior high school teacher, and Tadashi Oga, 53, who is self-employed, are members of a support group for the Lebanon-based terrorist organization, police officials alleged.

They are suspected of providing a rented apartment in Osaka's Nishinari Ward as a hideout for Shigenobu, 55, who was arrested earlier this month in Osaka Prefecture after having been on an international wanted list for about 30 years.

Both suspects were remaining silent, police said.

Beginning with the two arrests, the joint investigative team of the Metropolitan Police Department and Osaka Prefectural Police plan to question Shigenobu's suspected supporters in order to determine her movements while she was a fugitive.

Investigators believe Kataoka is a senior member of a Kansai-based support organization for the Red Army, while Oga -- a one-time member of a leftist extremist group -- became involved in the support activities several years ago. They suspect Kataoka also served as a contact for Red Army fugitives hiding overseas.

Officers searched the homes of the two suspects and seven other locations in Osaka Prefecture for evidence Tuesday.

They also searched 41 locations in Tokyo and nine prefectures in connection with an investigation into two passports that were found in the apartment.

Both passports, which were issued by the Japanese government, carry Shigenobu's photo. One was issued in 1997 to a woman named Yoshida, while the other was issued earlier this year to a woman named Yamada, police said.

Shigenobu is believed to have used them to enter and leave Japan over the past few years as they show records of eight round trips between Japan and other parts of Asia taken since December 1997. She used Kansai International Airport for most of her journeys to and from Japan.

Police said Yoshida is a relative of one of Shigenobu's key supporters. Investigators plan to question her and Yamada on a voluntary basis to determine why Shigenobu was in possession of the documents.

Shigenobu was taken into custody Nov. 8 as she emerged with two men from a hotel in Takatsuki, and subsequently arrested on suspicion of masterminding the Japanese Red Army's seizure of the French Embassy in The Hague on Sept. 13, 1974. On Nov. 9, she was served a fresh arrest warrant for alleged attempted murder in connection with the incident.

According to sources close to the case, investigators have called on Red Army members currently in prison or on trial to respond to fresh police questioning regarding the Hague incident, but they appear to have refused to testify.

Shigenobu is believed to be a key figure in a series of international terrorist incidents in the 1970s and has been one of eight high-profile Japanese leftists wanted for decades.

A native of Tokyo, Shigenobu in 1969 became an active member of the Red Army Faction, a radical leftist student group formed the same year and advocating global revolution through armed violence.

She entered Beirut in 1971 to assist the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Shortly after traveling to Lebanon, she organized the Japanese Red Army as an independent, foreign-based group to effect world revolution.