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Top Public Officials’ Security in Japan Was - And Still is - a Problem

CC0 / Pixabay / Police car in Japan
Police car in Japan - Sputnik International, 1920, 18.04.2023
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Japan continues to experience assaults by so-called “lone wolves” on top public officials. Former Prime Minister Abe was killed in such an attack, and shortly before the next stage of local elections in Japan, a new attack on the current Prime Minister Kishida occurred.
The question is whether this incident is an unpleasant trend: one occurrence could be chance, yet two indicate a pattern. If so, what are the underlying causes of this phenomenon and why is it still happening?
According to Valery Kistanov, head of the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of China and Modern Asia, these two attacks do not yet allow us to understand the motives: “We have to wait for the arrested young man to speak up, since there might be many causes for his actions. It is yet unclear whether it was due to some public dissatisfaction or he simply wanted to scare people. When Abe was killed, there were assumptions about political motives – that it was an attack on democracy. However, it was later revealed that the reasons for the assassination were purely personal: the young man held a grudge against the Unification Church which had bankrupted his family. The attacker wanted to take his anger out on the leader of the church, but the leader wasn’t there and that’s the reason Abe became his random victim. And a 24-year-old who attacked Kishida is in fact very young. It is unlikely he has serious philosophical, conceptual or ideological motives of the attack.”
However, the expert suggested that the young shooter simply wanted to become famous, just like former Prime Minister Abe’s shooter Tetsuya Yamagami. “In other words, he was really inspired by Yamagami’s actions, since almost all international media outlets reported on the case, insuring the shooter’s worldwide fame. Reading Japanese reports on this attack one would endorse empathy towards the detained young man, whose family had been affected by Unification Church – since he grew up in poverty, and was not really to blame for what happened. The attacker of Kishida may have similarly unexpected motives. Now he is not saying anything and he did not even resist arrest. As of now, it is unclear whether he wanted to kill someone or not.”
Meanwhile, Hideto Osanai, the head of CCTT Inc, which provides protection for high-ranking individuals both in Japan and internationally, deputy chairman of the International Bodyguard Association, and representative of this organization in Asia and Japan, told Sputnik newswire that Japanese policemen had learned from the former Prime Minister Sindzo Abe’s assassination.
Государственные похороны экс-премьера Японии Синдзо Абэ в Токио  - Sputnik International, 1920, 27.09.2022
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Indeed, the security team acted professionally in the case of Kishida. Nonetheless, the incident itself was not foiled – even though it had no tragic consequences.
Valery Kistanov noted: "Japanese police took security measures in the case of Kishida, but made an obvious mistake for the second time. The reasons for this are obvious: the event took place outdoors, and the crowd was not actually controlled, as the Japanese press itself reports. However, it is expected that the most serious security measures will finally be taken on the eve of the G7 summit in Hiroshima."
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