A man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the attempted murder of Japan’s former prime minister Fumio Kishida in 2023.
Ryuji Kimura, 25, hurled a pipe bomb at Kishida as the country’s leader approached a crowd for a speech during an election event in the city of Wakayama.
Although Kishida was unharmed, the explosion of the homemade device caused minor injuries to a police officer and a member of the public.
The attack shocked Japan as it came less than a year after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead at an outdoor election campaign event.
Kimura, who was sentenced on Wednesday, claimed during questioning his intention was not to kill Kishida, but to object to the country’s election age regulation which prevented him from getting into politics.
The minimum age to become a member of parliament in Japan is 25 for the House of Representatives and 30 for the House of Councillors.
Kimura further added that he threw the bomb to bring attention to a civil lawsuit he filed in 2022, claiming the age restriction was unconstitutional, which was dismissed.
Kimura’s defence argued he should not face a charge of attempted murder, as he did not expect the bomb to cause injuries, and that a three-year prison sentence would be reasonable given the extent of those injuries.
The court stated, however, that the explosives were powerful enough to cause fatal damage.
When handing down the ruling, presiding judge Keiko Fukushima noted that “targeting a serving prime minister caused significant anxiety to society as a whole.”
In addition to the attempted murder charge, Kimura was also found guilty of violating explosives regulations and firearms control laws.
His 10-year sentence is five years less than what prosecutors had sought.
While violent attacks are extremely rare in Japan, anxiety around politicians’ security has surged in the wake of Abe’s assassination in 2022.
The attempted attack on Kishida, which came less than a year later, raised questions as to why there was not a tighter security presence around the country’s leader at that time.
