Man Indicted for Attempted Murder in Attack on PM Kishida

From Jiji

September 6 2023

WAKAYAMA – Public prosecutors indicted a man, 24, Wednesday for attempted murder and other charges over an incident in April in which an explosive was thrown at Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on a campaign trail.

After analyzing the structure of the explosive, the Wakayama District Public Prosecutors Office concluded that the weapon was highly lethal and that Ryuji Kimura, the suspected attacker, therefore intended to kill the prime minister and others.

According to investigative sources, Kimura still remains silent during questioning. The prosecutors office in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, judged that he is capable of taking criminal responsibility, based on psychiatric evaluation conducted on the suspect for about three months until Friday.

Besides attempted murder, Kimura faces charges of violating the public offices election law, the explosives control law, and the firearms and swords control law.

On the morning of April 15, Kimura threw a cylindrical explosive toward Kishida about 10 meters away at Saikazaki Port in the city of Wakayama during the prime minister’s visit to the venue for delivering a stump speech. Kishida was evacuated safely, but a police officer and a man in the crowd suffered slight injuries. A hole with debris from the explosive was found in a container tens of meters away from the scene.