Molotov Cocktails on LDP Headquarters and PM Official Residence

Violence against politics during election campaign occurred again. A man hurled Molotov cocktails to the headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party and broke into the fence in front of the Official Residence of Prime Minister with his car in early morning of Saturday October 19th. The case occurred during campaign for general election of the House of Representatives, reminding of assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Nara two years ago. Security status for politically important places can be questioned again. 

According to news reports, a man arrived in front of LDP headquarters in Nagatacho in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, riding a small van, and got off the van and threw five Molotov cocktails into the site at 5:43 on Saturday morning. Nine minutes later, he drove his van to Prime Minister’s Official Residence, about 500 meters away from LDP headquarters, and crushed his van into the guard fence in front of entrance gate of the residence.

 

The man burnt the gate of LDP headquarters and front panel of police car guarding the building, and threw canister igniting flame and smoke to the policemen in front of Prime Minister’s Official Residence and tried to burn his car which loaded gasoline in plastic tanks. The assault caused no serious injury of people guarding those facilities.

 

The man was identified as having considered to run for general election of the House of Representatives from Saitama 2nddistrict in 2009, arguing abolishing the system of mandatory deposit for every candidate. He has also been involved in civil movement of anti-nuclear power plant, and frustrated with the coalition of LDP and Komeito, which promotes resumption of nuclear power plants as many as possible.

 

LDP headquarters and PM Official Residence is guarded by police officers for twenty-four hours every day. However, the police could not stop his assault on Saturday. Although the car did not loaded bombs, the scene of a car crushed into the guard reminded of suicide bombing against occupation of United States Forces in Iraq.

 

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba argued that democracy would never give in violence and reiterated his campaign slogan of preserving people’s safety. The leader of Constitutional Democratic Party, Yoshihiko Noda, stated that threatening freedom of political activities by violence can never be tolerated. National Police Agency ordered all the local police offices to enhance guarding important facilities.

 

It was during a campaign speech when Abe was shot to death in Nara city in July 2022. Fumio Kishida was hurled an explosive device in his campaign rally in Wakayama city for by-elections in April 2023. In spite of enhanced security with National Police Agency’s involvement in security measures of local polices, the police could not stop the assault in highly important facilities in capital city. It is inevitable for the people to embrace skepticisms on guarding capability of the police organization.

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