Atsuyuki Sassa, who served as the first head of Japan’s Cabinet Security Affairs Office, died Wednesday at age 87, his family said.

Sassa, a native of Tokyo, joined the forerunner of the National Police Agency after graduating from the University of Tokyo. He led the police force as a security bureau executive during the deadly standoff in the 1972 Asama mountain lodge incident, in which ultraleftist radicals of the United Red Army took hostages at a mountain lodge in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture.

He served in other senior posts including as head of the now-defunct Defense Facilities Administration Agency before serving as the security affairs chief between 1986 and 1989.