Japan prime minister vows to boost G7 security after smoke bomb attack

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he would increase security at G7 meetings taking place in his country, a day after a man threw a smoke bomb at him at a campaign event.

Kishida was campaigning Saturday ahead of next week’s by-elections for the Japanese parliament when an explosive device was hurled toward him. Footage on Twitter appeared to show a bodyguard kicking a smoke bomb away from the prime minister and bundling him away, after the device landed near them. A 24-year-old man was arrested at the scene.

Japan will host the leaders of the Group of Seven most industrialized nations at a summit in Hiroshima next month.

On Sunday, speaking after emerging unscathed from the smoke bomb incident, CNN quoted Kishida as saying: “Japan as a whole must strive to provide maximum security during the dates of the summit and other gatherings of dignitaries from around the world.”

G7 foreign ministers are meeting Sunday for a three-day conference in Karuizawa, where they are expected to discuss China’s aggression toward Taiwan, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and North Korea’s missile testing. G7 climate ministers, meanwhile, are completing a two-day meeting in Sapporo.

The Kishida incident had eerie echoes of the shocking assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last July.