A MAN was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for attempting to kill Japan’s then prime minister Fumio Kishida with a pipe bomb in 2023, a local court said.
Kishida was unharmed in the attack with a homemade device at a campaign event where assailant Ryuji Kimura, now 25, was arrested at the scene.
The incident in western Japan came less than a year after former premier Shinzo Abe was assassinated in July 2022 on the campaign trail.
A Wakayama District Court spokeswoman confirmed the 10-year jail sentence to AFP.
“The sense of anxiety caused to society by targeting the incumbent prime minister is significant,” judge Keiko Fukushima said, according to public broadcaster NHK.
“Severe punishment is needed to prevent copycats, and it cannot be underestimated that he has seriously disrupted the electoral system, which is the basis of democracy,” she said.
NHK and other local media said Kimura had been convicted of attempted murder.
Prosecutors had sought a 15-year sentence while Kimura’s defence team had argued for three years because he denied intending to kill Kishida, the reports said.
Suspected gunpowder, as well as pipe-like objects and tools were found at Kimura’s home during a police search after the attack.
At hearings during the trial, Kimura’s lawyers said his “purpose was to gain (public) attention” so his charge should be “inflicting injury” not attempted murder, NHK said.
Prosecutors however reportedly called the incident a “malicious terror act” and said the attacker knew his explosive was lethal.
Previous reports said Kimura once filed a lawsuit challenging the minimum age for political candidates and the requirement that they have at least three million yen ($19,700) to run for national office.
Under Japanese law, candidates for upper house elections must be 30 or older, while the minimum age to run for parliament’s lower house is 25.