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 15 April in the city of Wakayama, in the southwest of the archipelago, where the chief executive, Fumio Kishida, was near the port of Saikazaki to give support to the party’s candidate Liberal Democrat, on the occasion of the upcoming district elections.
A 24-year-old arrested
The alleged perpetrator of the explosion is a 24-year-old. The man, arrested by the police, lives in the city of Kawanishi, in the prefecture of Hyogo, and was immediately blocked by the security forces. Investigative sources told the public channel NHK that two cylindrical objects were found, one of which exploded, while the other was seized by the authorities.
The explosion
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.