Japan has to beef up security as Group of Seven leaders come, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Sunday, a day after an explosive was thrown at him at a campaign rally.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was unharmed after the object, believed to be a pipe bomb, was thrown at him while campaigning in the western city of Wakayama on Saturday.
A 24-year-old man was apprehended, but he has yet to clarify his intentions for the attack, which occurred as Japan hosted two G7 ministerial sessions.
“At a time when high-ranking officials from all over the world are visiting… Japan as a whole needs to maximise its efforts to ensure security and safety,” Kishida told reporters on Sunday.
“It’s unforgivable such a violent act was committed during an election campaign,” he added.
He predicted that police would beef up security in the aftermath of the tragedy, which occurred less than a year after Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was slain by a gunman in the western city of Nara.
His assassination shocked the country and sparked an overhaul of security around public officials.
When the incident occurred on Saturday, Kishida was ready to give a speech at a fishing port in Wakayama.
A metal canister was hurled from among a small crowd behind him, and the prime minister turned before being surrounded and escorted away by security.
Security officers and civilians on the scene swiftly apprehended a man, identified as Ryuji Kimura, 24, of Hyogo, also in western Japan.
A tremendous bomb rang off and white smoke filled the air as Kimura was apprehended, with many in the crowd screaming and fleeing.
A local fisherman who assisted in Kimura’s capture stated that he picked up a pipe-shaped object at the location.
“I picked up this metal thing and wanted to hand it to a police officer. But he told me, ‘Just put it down! Leave it there,'” he told national broadcaster NHK.
