The Yamagata District Court has sentenced a 66-year-old man to eight years in prison for setting the house of Liberal Democratic lawmaker Koichi Kato on fire in August 2006. Circumstances show that it was a clear attempt to suppress opinion by means of violence.
The ruling is reasonable since the criminal's act undermined an important democratic principle. The presiding judge correctly said the attack demonstrated blatant defiance against democracy and law-based order that guarantee freedom of speech.
According to the ruling, the 66-year-old man, a member of a Tokyo-based rightist group, read an interview article in a magazine featuring Mr. Kato, and concluded that the veteran LDP politician was opposed to then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine, Japan's war shrine.