Japan: Man targets ruling party headquarters with firebombs

TOKYO: A man was arrested in Tokyo after allegedly throwing what appeared to be Molotov cocktails (firebombs) at Japan’s ruling party headquarters and ramming his car into a fence outside the prime minister’s office, police said.

The suspect also drove his car to the premises of the prime minister’s office. The incident comes only days ahead of a general election in Japan.

The incident at the Liberal Democratic Party’s offices early on Saturday occurred just more than a week before a general election.

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Police said the man drove up to the party’s offices and threw five or six firebombs, hitting a police vehicle.

“He also drove into the road in front of the prime minister’s office, crashing into a fence to prevent vehicles from entering, and then threw what appeared to be a smoke bomb towards police officers after getting out of the car,” a police spokeswoman said.

Violence ahead of general election

His motives were not immediately clear, but the incident came ahead of a general election on October 27, in which new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba hopes to shore up his mandate.

“This happened during the election campaign, but we will do everything to ensure that elections and democracy are not destroyed by violence,” the prime minister said.

Ishiba’s predecessor, Fumio Kishida, was targeted in 2023 with a homemade pipe bomb but was unharmed. In 2022, former prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated in broad daylight on the campaign trail.

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The Liberal Democrats have ruled Japan almost incessantly over recent decades.