A Japanese court on Wednesday sentenced a 25-year-old man to 10 years in prison for the attempted murder of then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in 2023, the Kyodo news agency reported.
The court in Wakayama, a city in western Japan, ruled that the man deliberately attempted to kill Kishida and others on April 15, 2023, when he threw a homemade bomb at the then-premier.
The attack occurred while Kishida was preparing to deliver a speech in support of a Liberal Democratic Party candidate during local elections. Although Kishida was unharmed, the explosion slightly injured a police officer and a bystander.
“Targeting a serving prime minister caused significant anxiety to society as a whole,” Kyodo quoted Judge Keiko Fukushima as saying in the ruling.
Prosecutors had sought a 15-year prison term, arguing that the defendant’s actions posed a severe threat to public safety.
In addition to attempted murder, the court found the man guilty of violating Japan’s explosives and firearms regulations. He was also convicted of violating the Public Offices Election Law by forcing the cancellation of an election event, Kyodo reported.
The convicted man denied intending to kill anyone, claiming his actions were meant to draw attention to his dissatisfaction with Japan’s electoral system. He stated that he only wanted to create a disturbance at an event attended by a major politician.
The attack on Kishida came just over a year after the shocking assassination of his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, who was fatally shot while delivering a campaign speech in Nara.
Japan is widely regarded as one of the safest countries in the world, with stringent gun control laws and a low incidence of violent crime.
