A Japanese court sentenced a man to 10 years in prison on Wednesday for attempting to assassinate former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with a pipe bomb in 2023, AFP news agency reported from Tokyo, citing local media.
Kishida was unharmed in the attack with a homemade device at a campaign event. The assailant, 25-year-old Ryuji Kimura, was arrested at the scene. The incident occurred in western Japan less than a year after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated during an election campaign in July 2022.
The Wakayama District Court sentenced Kimura to 10 years in prison for attempted murder, Xinhua News Agency and public broadcaster NHK reported. The Asahi Shimbun daily reported that Kimura, who was sentenced to prison, committed the act at the site of an election speech.
Xinhua reported that prosecutors had sought a 15-year prison sentence for attempted murder. Kimura’s lawyers, on the other hand, argued for a three-year sentence because Kimura denied intending to kill Kishida. A court spokesman could not immediately confirm the reports. Police searched Kimura’s home after the attack and found suspicious items such as gunpowder, pipes and tools.
Kimura’s lawyers said at a hearing during the trial that his “intention was to attract (public) attention”. His charge should be “injury” but not attempted murder, NHK reported. A previous report said Kimura had once filed a lawsuit challenging the minimum age requirement for political candidates and the requirement to have at least three million yen to run for national office.
Under Japanese law, candidates must be 30 or older to run for the upper house. In Japan, the minimum age to run for the lower house of parliament is 25.
