A 30-year-old man arrested on Friday following an attack against Takashi Tachibana — head of controversial political group NHK Party — with a machete had a strong intent to kill, according to police.
Tachibana, 57, was attacked around 5:10 p.m. on Friday in front of the industry ministry's building in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district after giving a speech on the street. He suffered injuries on his head, neck and left ear, but his life was not in danger, the Metropolitan Police Department said.
The Tokyo police arrested the alleged assailant, Shion Miyanishi, who said he was a resident of Tokyo's Suginami Ward, on suspicion of attempted murder.
"I swung the machete down, aiming to hit his head, a vital spot," police quoted Miyanishi as saying on Saturday. The suspect also said he did it because he wanted to kill Tachibana.
Police have also said that the suspect used a stun grenade, also called a flashbang, right before the attack in order to cause panic.
"I tried to hit his head with the machete, but it didn't go quite right as I was nervous," police quoted Miyanishi as saying, adding that the suspect had purchased the flashbang on the internet.
At the time of the attack, Tachibana was taking pictures with his supporters. Miyanishi was standing in line, but when his turn came, he suddenly took out the flashbang and the machete and attacked Tachibana with the weapon. The police seized the machete at the scene — the weapon's blade measured around 16 centimeters.
The suspect was subdued by a nearby man in his 30s and a man in his 50s who appeared to be a member of Tachibana's staff. The man in his 30s suffered a cut on his left knee.
Tachibana had harshly criticized a former Hyogo Prefectural Assembly member who sat on the assembly's panel investigating workplace harassment allegations against Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito.
The former member resigned from the assembly in November last year and died in January this year in an apparent suicide.
Miyanishi told police that he tried to kill Tachibana because he believed Tachibana was "the kind of person who would drive an assembly member to commit suicide."
Police have not found any links between Miyanishi and the former Hyogo assembly member.
After the attack on Friday, Tachibana said on X: "I'm fine. Conscious." He later posted, "One month to recover completely," "The criminal is a man I don't know at all," and "I am full of anxiety and fear."
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