Japanese Prime Minister Unharmed After Explosion at Campaign Rally

Saturday, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was safely evacuated after somebody threw a bomb at an event he was attending in a city by the sea. Police were able to catch the person who did it while many people nearby screamed and ran away as smoke filled the air.

Luckily, no one was injured and Kishida still plans to go on his campaign tour today. But the chaotic incident made it feel like what happened back in July when a former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was killed while he was also out campaigning. Kishida had stopped by Saikazaki port in Wakayama prefecture to support a politician from his party running in an election, just when the explosion occurred right before he had to start speaking.

The police arrested a person they suspected had thrown something. Video footage showed many policemen working together to catch him and pull him away. Nobody knows yet what happened, but some say it was a smoke or pipe bomb that caused the explosion.

Matsuno did not explain why the suspect did this or what their background was, since the police still haven’t figured it out yet. Thankfully, no one got hurt in this incident which happened on the day before a big event in Japan. Kishida himself was safe and intended to give some speeches later that day.

Matsuno said that elections are very important in democracy and threats or violent actions are not allowed. He added that the prime minister had made the right decision by continuing with his campaign schedule. Matsuno also asked the police to do their best to protect important people who will be visiting Japan before the G7 Summit in May.

Abe’s death, which was very surprising to a country that puts high value on safety and limits gun control laws, happened while he was giving a speech in the city of Nara. The police are now more careful with their security following an investigation that discovered missing parts in Abe’s security protection measures. The whole event made people across the nation speechless.

The police are doing extra security checks in Japan because important people from some of the biggest countries around the world will be coming to Japan this weekend. On May 19-21, Fumio Kishida is going to host a meeting of these leaders in his hometown Hiroshima.

On Saturday, someone reported to NHK television that they had seen something fly past the crowd. After a loud and sudden noise, everybody hurriedly ran away with their kids. Another person said that many people were screaming and he saw somebody getting caught right before the explosion occurred.

The attack took place in front of upcoming elections all around the country, including some contests for spare spots in parliament which are scheduled to happen on April 23rd.

Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan, was shot while giving a speech on his campaign. The person who pulled the trigger, Tetsuya Yamagami, has been charged with murder and other offenses like breaking gun control regulations.

Yamagami reportedly told investigators that he assassinated Abe, one of Japan’s most famous politicians, due to his connections with a religion Yamagami strongly disliked. He declared that he started to hate Abe because his mother had given lots of money to the Unification Church which made his family become broke and ruined his life.

After Abe got killed, the country had to make changes in security for famous people and important officials resigned from their jobs. Kishida wants to make sure that this Sunday the world will be looking at Karuizawa, an area with hot springs where the G7 foreign ministers are having a meeting.

The foreign ministers from the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada, France, the UK, Italy and the European Union will be talking about their concerns with Russia’s war in Ukraine, China being more aggressive and North Korea doing tests with weapons.