According to a court spokeswoman, a man suspected of hurling an explosive at Japan’s prime minister had previously filed a complaint against the government.
According to Japanese media, the suspect’s lawsuit, filed in June by 24-year-old Ryuji Kimura, was a complaint about the country’s minimum age for competing in elections.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was unharmed during the attack on Saturday, in which a suspected pipe bomb was thrown at him at a campaign rally in a western Japanese port.
Kimura was apprehended at the scene of the crime, which happened less than a year after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was slain while campaigning.
Candidates for the upper house must be at least 30 years old, while candidates for the lower house must be at least 25 years old.
Kimura’s lawsuit claimed it was unlawful for him to be barred from running in last summer’s upper house election, according to court records cited by the Yomiuri Shimbun and other publications.
Kimura had sued the government, according to an Osaka High Court spokeswoman, but his claim had been denied by a lower court. Kimura has filed an appeal, and the Osaka court will rule next month.
According to local media, Kimura requested 100,000 yen ($750) in damages for the “mental distress” of being unable to run for office.
Kimura was unable to give the requisite three million yen ($22,000) deposit that all candidates are required to pay, according to the Yomiuri.
According to local media, police are examining whether the device hurled at Kishida moments before he gave a speech in Wakayama had fatal potential.
The attack apparently resulted in two minor injuries.
Kimura reportedly lambasted a state burial performed for Abe, whose assassination shocked the nation, in a paper handed to the court after his complaint was filed.
He is also said to have criticized Abe’s suspected ties to the Unification Church and other organizations. Tetsuya Yamagami, Abe’s alleged assassin, allegedly targeted the politician because of his ties to the group, whose adherents are commonly known as “Moonies.”
The attack occurred on Saturday, as G7 climate ministers convened in northern Japan, and a day before the bloc’s foreign ministers began talks in the country.
The voting age in Japan was reduced from 20 to 18 in 2016.
