A man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the attempted murder of Japan's former prime minister Fumio Kishida in 2023, BBC reported.
Ryuji Kimura, 25, hurled a pipe bomb at Fumio Kishida as he approached a crowd for a speech during an election event in the city of Wakayama.
Although Kishida was unharmed, the explosion of the homemade device caused minor injuries to a police officer and a member of the public.
The attack shocked Japan as it came less than a year after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead at an outdoor election campaign event.
Kimura, who was sentenced on Wednesday, claimed during questioning his intention was not to kill Kishida, but to object to the country's election age regulation which prevented him from getting into politics.
He further added that he threw the bomb to bring attention to a civil lawsuit he filed in 2022, which was dismissed.
While violent attacks are extremely rare in Japan, anxiety around politicians' security has surged in the wake of Abe's assassination in 2022.
The attempted attack on Kishida, which came less than a year later, raised questions as to why there was not a tighter security presence around the country's leader at that time.
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