A limousine carrying Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was damaged in a pileup Saturday involving four other government vehicles at an automated toll gate in the capital, government and police officials said.
Two police officers suffered slight facial injuries in the Shibuya Ward accident, but Abe was unhurt, one of his secretaries said.
A column of five government cars was passing through an electronic toll gate at the Yoyogi Interchange near Meiji Shrine at 1:40 p.m. when the lead vehicle suddenly stopped because the gate bar failed to rise for some reason. It was then rear-ended by Abe's car, police said. This started a chain reaction collision involving the next three cars. The two injured officers were in the fourth car, police said.
According to a reporter in one of the vehicles, a car carrying security guards was too damaged to stay with the five-car convoy, so the other four, including Abe's limousine, went on without out it to his next appointment in the Hibiya district, the reporter said.
Later in the day, Abe stopped in at the Nico Nico Chokaigi event in Chiba before attending an Exile concert at Tokyo Dome.