Explosion during Fumio Kishida rally, Japanese premier evacuated

Fear returns to Japan less than a year after the attack that caused the death of former premier Shinzo Abe, which occurred during an election rally.

A dynamic that was repeated in the city of Wakayama, in the south-west of the archipelago, where the chief executive, Fumio Kishida, was near the port of Saikazaki to give support to the candidate of the Liberal-Democratic party on the occasion of the upcoming district elections.

The police arrested a man who threw an explosive device similar to a paper bomb in the direction of the premier, before being caught up and blocked by the police . The explosion, albeit contained, created confusion but caused no injuries in the crowd, and Kishida himself was unhurt in the incident. His speech was cancelled, the prime minister evacuated, while light is shed on the umpteenth episode of what appears to all intents and purposes the gesture of a deranged man and on the adequacy of the security measures that regulate events of this magnitude, compared to the western standards.

Although Japan has the lowest crime rate among developed countries and the use of weapons is highly restricted, the sporadic presence of individual criminal acts calls for greater caution by the authorities.

Last July's assassination of Abe, the longest-serving Japanese prime minister since the war, was carried out by a person who managed to freely approach the premier during an electoral rally taking place in the city of Nara, before exploding two shots from close range with a craft gun.

Once the fear had passed, the prime minister immediately resumed his electoral campaign activities and even apologized to the citizens: " I would like to apologize for having made many people worried and disturbed ," he told public broadcaster NHK.

(Unioneonline/L)