Japan police say flaws in primary safety allowed attacker to throw pipe bomb at prime minister

TOKYO — Japan’s National Police Agency stated in a report Thursday that flaws in primary safety akin to an absence of steel detectors and bag checks allowed an attacker to enter a marketing campaign crowd unnoticed and throw a pipe bomb at Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in April.

The bomb fell close to Kishida and he was pushed away by particular police earlier than it exploded and he was unharmed.

A suspect, Ryuji Kimura, 24, was arrested on the scene of the April 15 assault within the fishing port of Saikazaki within the western prefecture of Wakayama, the place Kishida was about to make a marketing campaign speech for an area candidate.

Kimura stays in police custody and is present process a court-approved psychological analysis till Sept. 1.

Some of the folks attending the marketing campaign rally, who have been largely from the fishing neighborhood, stated they have been shocked by the free safety preparations, akin to the dearth of bag checks and the shut distance between them and the prime minister.

The assault occurred lower than a yr after the July 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a marketing campaign speech in Nara metropolis, which prompted the dismissal of high nationwide and native police officers over lax safety. The National Police Agency additionally compiled plans to enhance safety of dignitaries.

“We take it seriously that this case occurred less than a year after (Abe’s assassination), and that’s why we have compiled this report,” National Police Agency chief Yasuhiro Tsuyuki stated.

The report stated no efficient measures have been in place to detect and forestall anybody possessing weapons from approaching the prime minister.

The native fisheries cooperative had instructed police that the viewers could be restricted to its members and their households. Staff of the cooperative have been assigned to confirm attendees by their faces, however failed to acknowledge Kimura as a stranger.

The report urged organizers of marketing campaign rallies to make use of steel detectors and baggage checks, and maintain speeches by political leaders and different dignitaries indoors. It stated skilled cops must be deployed to extra successfully detect suspicious actions.

While members of the viewers have been taking photographs of Kishida with their smartphones, safety workers failed to identify the attacker lighting his first pipe bomb and throwing it at Kishida, the report stated.