Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was not injured in the incident. One man has been arrested in connection with the incident.
Prime Minister in Japan Fumio Kishida the campaign event ended in chaos on Saturday in the port city of Wakayama in the western part of the country.
According to eyewitnesses interviewed by the Japanese public broadcasting company NHK, the situation started when a disturbance first arose in the middle of the audience. After this, the young man threw a cylinder-shaped object into the audience.
The video shows how the security guards push the young man to the ground and at the same time some kind of banger bomb explodes.
The Prime Minister was not injured in the incident and he has already announced that he will continue his official program today.
A 24-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the incident, but the police are so far silent about his possible motives.
According to NHK, the person was arrested on suspicion of obstructing business.
After Abe’s death, security measures have been tightened
The incident happened a little before noon local time. Prime Minister Kishida had arrived in Wakayama to campaign in the upcoming local elections.
In Japan, gun laws are strict and there is little violent crime in the country, which has contributed to the fact that security measures for political events are usually relatively light.
However, security measures for politicians have been tightened after the country’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe was killed in July of last year in the middle of a campaign event.
reporter currently in North-Eastern Japan Heikki Valkama estimates that today’s incident has become the biggest news in the country because Abe’s death is fresh in the memory.
– People are very horrified because Abe’s murder was a huge shock here. It was thought that there would be no political murders in Japan, says Valkama.
– Now, fortunately, it looks like it has survived with a bang, Valkama continues.
The trial of Abe’s death is still ongoing. According to the prosecutor Tetsuya Yamagami shot the former prime minister with a homemade gun.
Yamagami is suspected of harboring a grudge against the religious organization because it had enticed his mother to donate a large sum of money to it.
Yamagami, on the other hand, accused Abe of supporting this organization, which, according to the prosecutor, served as a motive for the violence.