In an exclusive interview with The Japan Times, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday that he did not feel his life was threatened in the immediate aftermath of an attack on Saturday, and that he was more concerned about how it would impact ongoing local elections and the Group of Seven summit in May.
“Strangely, I didn’t feel like my (life) was at risk,” Kishida said. “I was thinking of how it would affect the people who came, how it would affect the many voters and the election itself. I also thought about how the incident would impact the G7 summit and other important diplomatic events.”
Although Kishida condemned the act as an affront to democracy, he said he won’t be able to evaluate it until investigators learn more details.