Questions mount as Kishida attack brings sense of deja vu
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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.
What were the circumstances of the incident?
Details are still being gathered, but the suspect was identified as a 24-year-old man from Hyogo Prefecture, which is separated from Wakayama by Osaka Prefecture.
The assumption then is that he deliberately traveled quite a ways to where he knew Kishida would be. Meanwhile, Kishida was there to stump for one of the five LDP candidates running for a seat in parliamentary by-elections
During Kishida’s speech, the suspect tossed an unknown object toward the prime minister. The individual was immediately tackled by bystanders and security personnel, and Kishida was taken to a police station until authorities could assess whether there was a threat of follow-on incidents.
Once the all-clear was given, Kishida publicly announced that he would continue with his scheduled events, which he did in the early afternoon.
How did the attack differ from the assassination of Abe?
While details are still being gathered, we can already see some important similarities and differences between this incident and Abe’s assassination. The most important similarity was the fact that this happened during a stump speech during an election campaign. After Abe’s assassination, the government promised to improve security for such events.
One key difference in the two incidents is the age of the suspects. The 24-year-old suspect in Saturday’s incident is nearly 20 years younger than the assassin who killed Abe last year. As observers ponder the social implications of these two incidents and what they might mean going forward, demographics are useful for consideration in assessing potential trends or systemic concerns.
How will this impact the elections?
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