A pickup truck carrying a group of Japanese rightists protesting Russian policies slipped through a police cordon near the Russian Embassy during Russian President Vladimir Putin's official visit to Tokyo in September, police disclosed Sunday.
Police mistakenly allowed the red pickup truck, a former fire department vehicle disguised to appear currently in use, to pass a checkpoint in downtown Tokyo on Sept. 3, believing it was on duty, the police said.
The incident occurred while police were preventing rightwing groups' sound trucks -- which were blasting over loudspeakers about such political issues as the Japan-claimed but Russian-held islands off Hokkaido -- from approaching the embassy and the hotel where Putin was staying.
After making their way to the embassy in Tokyo's Minato Ward shortly after noon, the members put a sign showing the name of their group on a door and prepared to broadcast from speakers mounted on the vehicle.
But they were quickly spotted by security officers in front of the embassy and told to move away, the police said.
The vehicle used to belong to a fire station in Okegawa, Saitama Prefecture, police said, adding they have yet to learn how the group, calling itself "Seiki Juku," obtained it.
During Putin's Sept. 3-5 visit to Japan, 400 rightists riding in 100 sound trucks gathered in Tokyo, the police said.