Following insufficient security measures that led to a failed attack on former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a stump speech in 2023, the National Police Agency has called on organizers of such speeches to standardize security measures such as baggage checks and metal detectors.
As a result, 99% of speech sites during last year’s House of Representatives election had baggage inspections carried out, the NPA said.
Before the April 2023 attack on Kishida at a venue in Wakayama Prefecture, the prefectural police had requested a reception area for attendees and for there to be metal detectors. The organizers of Kishida’s stump speech, however, said the only people in attendance would be from the fisheries industry and declined to put any such security measures into place, according to a report the NPA released in June of 2023.
Ryuji Kimura, now 25, managed to slip past Kishida’s security detail until he was about 10 meters away from the former prime minister and was able to throw an improvised explosive device.
It would appear that lessons had not been well learned from the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 8, 2022.
Following the failed attack on Kishida, the NPA began applying greater pressure on speech organizers to enforce better security measures.
As such, baggage inspections were carried out at 99% of speech sites during the Lower House election last October, and metal detectors were used at 98% of them.
Since such inspections had only been carried out at 15% of speech locations in April of 2023, “the message got through,” an NPA official said.
Kimura was seen as being a lone wolf, meaning he acted alone in the attack on Kishida. Police throughout the nation are working harder to gather information regarding such attackers.
Security details for candidates during last October’s Lower House election “managed to stop 100% of all (persons of interest) outside the speech venues,” the NPA official said.
However, as these attackers work alone, including when preparing for an attack, it can be difficult to predict when they might strike.
One man threw Molotov cocktails at the Liberal Democratic Party’s headquarters during last year’s Lower House election before ramming his car into a security fence in front of the Prime Minister's Office.
The suspect in those incidents, Atsunobu Usuda, 50, who is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation, is also thought to have acted alone.
“We need to work even harder to stop lone wolves” during this summer’s House of Councilors election, the NPA official said.
Another NPA official added, “No matter what, we will stop any persons of interest from getting close to those giving speeches.”
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