Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said Tuesday he has been hearing "rumors" that a bomb found in the garage of Deputy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka in September was placed by people seeking to discredit hardliners on North Korean issues -- like the governor himself.
"The bomb did not explode, even though it was complete with a fuse. . . . It is widely rumored that somebody who is critical of us did it to attract sympathy," Ishihara told a gathering in Tokyo.
The gathering was organized by supporters of people whose families were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.