It was an incident that felt eerily familiar in Japan. A crowd of onlookers watched as a prominent political figure was about to deliver campaign remarks on behalf of a Liberal Democratic Party candidate. Suddenly, a male suspect was tackled to the ground, and shouts rang out as a confused crowd tried to ascertain what was going on. Such were the circumstances last year when former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated, and it seemed like deja vu on Saturday during an incident involving current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
On Saturday morning in the city of Wakayama, a young man tossed an apparent explosive device toward Kishida as he was about to begin a stump speech. The prime minister was unharmed in the incident and quickly spirited away by security personnel before the sound of an explosion rang out. The suspect was immediately taken into custody, and Kishida returned to his scheduled programming a few hours later.
While this occurred without the same tragic consequences of the assassination last year, the shocking event leaves many unanswered questions. Some details will come to light through the police investigation, such as the suspect’s motives, the exact type of explosive used and the precise intent of the attack. But other questions will be on the minds of political watchers and Japan observers alike. They are worth examining now as the situation unfolds.