Fear returns to Japan less than a year after the assassination attempt on former premier Shinzo Abe during an election rally. A dynamic that was repeated in the late morning of today in the city of Wakayama, in the south-west of the archipelago, where the chief executive, Fumio Kishida, was near the port of Saikazaki to give support to the candidate of the Liberal- Democrat, in the upcoming district elections. Police said they arrested a man who threw an explosive device similar to a paper bomb in the direction of the premier, before being caught up and blocked by the police. The explosion, albeit contained, of the bomb created confusion but caused no injuries in the crowd, and Kishida himself was unhurt in the incident. His speech has been cancelled, while light is shed on the umpteenth episode of what appears to all intents and purposes the gesture of a deranged man and on the adequacy of the security measures that regulate events of this magnitude, compared to Western standards. Although Japan has the lowest crime rate among developed countries and the use of weapons is highly restricted, the sporadic presence of individual criminal acts calls for greater caution by the authorities. Last July’s assassination of Abe, the longest-serving Japanese prime minister since the war, was carried out by a person who managed to freely approach the premier during an electoral rally taking place in the city of Nara, before exploding two shots from close range with a craft gun.
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