Police have arrested a 40-year-old man for allegedly hurling a smoke canister at the South Korean Consulate in Kobe on Friday.
Masao Jitsui of Miki, Hyogo Prefecture was arrested the same day and charged with throwing the canister at the consulate around 9:55 p.m. Friday night, before being subdued by riot police guarding the building in Chuo Ward, the police said.
The canister missed the consulate and no one was injured in the incident, they added. Jitsui has already admitted to the charge, telling investigators he was "dissatisfied that South Korea repatriated to China an arsonist (allegedly) responsible for an arson attack at Yasukuni Shrine" in Tokyo, the police said.
A South Korean court Thursday decided against extraditing to Japan a Chinese man who allegedly torched a gate of the shrine, which is dedicated to the nation's war dead.
The court ruled the suspect could only be prosecuted by the Japanese court system for his political views about Japan's militarist past — an offense not subject to the extradition treaty between Tokyo and Seoul — but not over his alleged role in the arson attack against the shrine.