Explosive allegedly thrown at Japan’s PM

TOKYO — A 24-year-old man who allegedly threw an explosive at Prime Minister Fumio Kishida wanted to be a politician and believed that he was unfairly blocked from running for Japan’s parliament by an age requirement, according to media reports and social media posts that appeared to be his.

The suspect, Ryuji Kimura, was wrestled to the ground and arrested Saturday at a campaign event in the fishing port of Saikazaki, in the western Japanese city of Wakayama. The explosive, believed to be a pipe bomb, landed near Kishida, who escaped unhurt.

Kimura has refused to talk to police, but local media reports that he bore grievances about Japan’s election system might shed light on his motives.

In June last year Kimura, who police said is unemployed, filed a lawsuit with the Kobe District Court claiming that he should have been allowed to register for the July 2022 Upper House election, according to Japanese media including NHK public television and Kyodo News. A candidate must be aged 30 years or older and present a 3 million yen ($22,260) deposit to run for the upper house, the less powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. He was 23 at the time.

He demanded the government pay 100,000 yen ($740) in compensation for his psychological anguish, according to the reports.

Violent crimes are rare in Japan. With its strict gun control laws, the country has only a handful of gun-related crimes annually, most of them gang-related. But in recent years Japanese police have worried about “lone offender” attacks with homemade guns and explosives. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated with a homemade gun at a campaign event on July 8, just two days before the upper house election.

In a document he submitted to the court, Kimura argued that the election system that blocked his candidacy was unconstitutional, the reports said.

Kimura argued that the election law violates constitutional guarantees of equality and other rights, according to media reports. The court dismissed his claim in a November ruling, and Kimura appealed the decision to the Osaka High Court, whose decision is expected in May, reports say.

ASSOCIATED PRESS A man who was later identified as Ryuji Kimura is arrested after what appeared to be a pipe bomb was thrown at Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his visit Saturday, at a port in Wakayama, western Japan.