2023-04-17 06:09:34
[2023.4.17 Japan]
How easy is it to snipe the Prime Minister?The Fumio Kishida Assault: A Conundrum for Security Planning
“There have been two attacks on political dignitaries within one year… What should the Japanese police do?” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was attacked at the fishing port in Wakayama City on April 15 last weekend, and the prisoner who threw explosives was Ryuji Kimura Kishida, who was suppressed and arrested on the spot, evacuated immediately, was safe and sound, and continued to make public speeches on the street in the afternoon. The arrested current criminal, Kimura, is 24 years old. Since he remains silent, the police are still investigating the motive of the crime; steel cylinders, powder and tools suspected of making explosives have been found in his residence in Hyogo Prefecture, but the identity of Kimura Questions such as the background and whether Fumio Kishida was specifically targeted have yet to be clarified by the police.
As Japan’s unified local elections are about to usher in the second half of the election campaign on the 23rd, Kishida and the Liberal Democratic Party have made every effort to promote and campaign. After the incident, Kishida considered that “democratic elections should not be threatened by violence” and decided to continue to make it public. Speaking itinerary. However, democracy and elections are the same thing. The attack this time has also raised questions about Japan’s security issues. Since former Prime Minister Abe was shot and killed last year, there are still loopholes and deficiencies in the security work that has been done to strengthen security? How to balance the scales of “political activities” and “security”? In the eyes of security experts, the attacks from Abe to Kishida have highlighted the difficulties of Lone Wolf Operations, which are difficult to guard against and lack manpower and experience.
▌Saikazaki Fishing Port: Closing the Raid
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived at the Yukazaki Fishing Port in Wakayama City after 11:00 on Saturday, April 15th. There was an industry promotion event for sashimi tasting at the fishing port. Kishida’s trip is not only to promote the fishery industry, but also to vote for the upcoming unified local elections. In the by-election of members of the House of Representatives in Wakayama District 1, there is a Liberal Democratic Party candidate. It is necessary to create momentum for the platform of Men Bowen.
The lecture was originally scheduled to be given at noon after the tasting event. The location of the speech was at the port not far from the tasting venue. At about 11:20 noon, Kishida’s tasting event ended and he was taking a photo at the scene. At this time, it was near the venue Many people have poured in waiting for the next speech; at 11:25, people can be seen gathering behind Fumio Kishida, about 200 people.
At about 11:27—a person among the crowd threw a bottle-shaped object in the direction of Kishida, and it made a noise after falling. Kishida immediately checked his back and feet. Immediately cover Kishida to leave; and the man who threw the explosives was immediately found among the crowd. A fisherman at the scene stepped forward to catch the suspect, and the people in front fled back in a burst of chaos. The thrower was suppressed by the fishermen and the police on the spot on the ground. Less than a minute later, white smoke rose from where Fumio Kishida was standing, and then a loud noise erupted.
There were no casualties at the scene after the explosion, and Fumio Kishida, who evacuated immediately, was not injured. The police arrested the suspect on the spot, and later identified him as Ryuji Kimura, 24, from Hyogo Prefecture. The object thrown was suspected to be a metal pipe bomb, which was only about 10 meters away from Fumio Kishida when it was thrown.
▌Assault on the spot: Ryuji Kimura (24)
The arrested Ryuji Kimura is 24 years old. Although he did not strongly resist at the scene, he remained silent in all interrogations by the police after the arrest, saying only that he would “wait for the lawyer to come.” According to the preliminary investigation by the police, Ryuji Kimura lived in Kawanishi City, Hyogo Prefecture since he was a child, and lived with his mother and elder brother. Kimura is currently unemployed.
The police went to his residence to search on the 15th and 16th, and found steel cylinders, powder and tools suspected of making explosives. The police suspected that they might be the materials used by Kimura to make explosives by himself; , there is also a 13 cm fruit knife, lighter and mobile phone. There is also an exploded steel cylinder (thrown at the time, suspected to be the explosive of a pipe bomb) at the scene of the crime, and another tubular object of the same type that has not yet detonated. The police are investigating.
Tetsuya Yamagami, the prisoner of Abe’s assassination in July 2022 last year, made his own weapons for the crime after searching for information and obtaining materials on the Internet; therefore, in this Kishida attack, the police also paid special attention to the explosives and weapons held by Kimura. Relevant materials, whether there are relevant clues in Kimura’s mobile phone and computer, is one of the focuses of the investigation.
Ryuji Kimura has not revealed the details of the case so far, and the motive for the crime is still under investigation by the police. Although various Japanese media have found the memories of neighbors and classmates in primary and secondary schools, there is nothing “specially abnormal” (in the Japanese media ” In the investigation of “Modern Business”, the Kimura family originally had a father and a younger sister, a family of 5 people living together, but for some reason the father no longer lived with him, and the younger sister did not provide relevant information); also included “NHK” and Other mainstream media, including Kimura’s elementary school essays, have written words such as “I want to be a pastry chef or an inventor”, but this information is of little help in clarifying the current case. The family members living with Kimura only responded to the media’s questioning:
“Kimura doesn’t have a regular job and has been living at home. I don’t know why this incident happened.”
▌After the incident, why did Fumio Kishida decide to “continue the election platform schedule”?
Fumio Kishida, who evacuated safely after the attack, first canceled his speech at the fishing port at noon, and moved the location under the protection of the Wakayama prefectural police to ensure the personal safety of the prime minister. However, about 1 hour and 10 minutes after the incident, Fumio Kishida went to JR Wakayama Station to continue his public speaking schedule, and the police force was clearly strengthened around him.At the beginning of the speech, Kishida first mentioned the attack that happened earlier. Kishida went on to say: “We are holding an election that is crucial to the country, and we need everyone to work together and persist until the end.” At the same time, Kishida FumioAlso posted photos of the speech on Twitterwriting “I will continue to make street speeches”, expressing an attitude of not being afraid of violence.
According to the Wakayama County Police, after Kishida’s evacuation, the police explained that it may be risky to continue to run the public itinerary, considering that the motive of the prisoner is unknown and it is not clear whether there are other accomplices. At the same time, Toshimitsu Motegi, the secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, also called directly to ask for further instructions from Kishida. Fumio Kishida said that “risks are everywhere, and it is my responsibility to continue the election.” After instructing to strengthen travel safety measures, the prime minister himself The party department of the Liberal Democratic Party responded immediately: All election trips will continue as scheduled.
This is also the same statement that Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroichi Matsuno and the Liberal Democratic Party said on the afternoon of the 15th when the incident happened: “Election is the foundation of democracy and should not be hindered by threats of violence. This is the prime minister’s judgment.” Opposition parties The Cadets, that is, representatives of other parties, also tacitly adopted the same position, and street speeches everywhere almost went on as usual.
This election is the second half of Japan’s “unified local elections”. The polling day is on April 23 (the first half has been completed on April 9). For Fumio Kishida and the Liberal Democratic Party, the national campaign for the by-election is still a key battle to grasp the number of seats and test whether they can hold power for a long time in the face of the current high prices and other social and economic problems.
▌Is it easy to snipe the prime minister?The Dilemma of Japanese Security
Despite the symbolic importance of elections and democracy, there has been a second attack on a political figure in less than a year since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while giving a street speech in Nara City on July 8, 2022 How to strengthen Japan’s security issues, and what difficulties there are, are still difficult issues discussed by all walks of life.
After the shooting of Abe, the Japanese police began to comprehensively strengthen the security strategy in August of the same year. Starting from Nara County where the incident occurred at that time, the “Police Plan” was revised and supplemented to address the issue of on-site security protection, and finally submitted to the Japanese National Police Agency for review and implementation . The plan includes pre-investigation on the venue where politicians speak, how to deploy police force and protection on the spot, and when politicians visit or make public trips such as street speeches, the local government must submit a police protection plan to the Police Department; this time Kishida Before visiting Wakayama City, according to the National Police Agency, the Wakayama Prefectural Police had already proposed a security plan as usual, but because the details were not disclosed to the public, it is not sure what the specific content of the plan is.
But even if there are advance protection preparations, the cadres of the National Police Agency told the Jiji News Agency that it is still quite difficult to prevent the assassination of Abe Yamagami, and this time the “lone wolf operation” of Kimura Ryuji; Belief in dogma or organizational terrorists, the prisoners in these two attacks were hardly found to have particularly obvious “abnormalities” before the crimes, and it was difficult to guard against them when they were hidden among the public.
Another difficulty lies in the distance between politicians and the people. Japan’s Political Watch analysis believes that after the epidemic, politicians’ election campaigns still hope to get closer to the people, so as to regain the distance caused by the epidemic and create a sense of trust with voters. For example, insiders of the Liberal Democratic Party revealed to the Asahi Shimbun that this kind of face-to-face emotional communication with voters is indeed very helpful in canvassing votes.
But looking in the eyes of the guards is another matter. Atsushi Sekine, who once served as the third entourage of former Prime Minister Abe, believes that one of the problems with Fumio Kishida’s venue this time is that the lighting on the site is insufficient, which may make it difficult for interested people to be found; the second is that the distance between Kishida and the public is too large. Close, ideally should be kept more than 10 meters (this time the distance of throwing explosives is about 10 meters).
Koichi Ito, a former member of the Special Forces (SAT) of the Metropolitan Police Department, told NHK that although the Prime Minister was safely removed from the Kishida attack at the time of the attack, there was no way to determine whether there was a second crime or whether there were accomplices. Suppressing prisoners without actually evacuating the masses is “not responding well enough and lacking a sense of crisis.” However, Atsushi Sekine and Ito Koto both believed that the police work for political dignitaries is a job that lacks training and experience for the local county police. In addition, there may not be more manpower in the local area to support it. It’s really tight at work.
Did Japanese police learn from the Abe assassination? Mitsuru Fukuda, a scholar at the Department of Crisis Management at Nihon University, thinks “no”—from Fukuda’s security point of view, even if politicians want to get close to voters, they should still keep a considerable distance, and they should target the backpacks and carry-ons of the participants. Bags and other security checks, but this time Kishida’s fishing port trip did not have any prior security checks.
The immediate problem is not just sniping against political dignitaries, it seems to be relatively easy due to distance and protection; next, from May 19th to 23rd this year, the G7 summit will be held in Fumio Kishida’s hometown – Hiroshima At that time, representatives from G7 countries will come. Although the security levels for such international conferences were completely different in the past, the attacks that occurred twice within a year still have a profound impact on Japan’s security issues and even the issue of lone wolf attacks in society. Apply a layer of shadow.
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