A string of death threats directed at the two leading candidates in the Tokyo gubernatorial race reflects the “latent anger” of the electorate and Japan could be on the brink of a return to the politically tumultuous 1930s era, analysts warn.
Fax messages were sent on Monday to the office of the Tokyo First Party, to which Governor Yuriko Koike serves as a special adviser, and the office of a member of the group representing the city’s Toshima ward.
“I have obtained a high-performance bomb and sulphuric acid. I will pour sulphuric acid on Yuriko Koike and blind her,” read the anonymous message, Jiji Press reported on Tuesday.
“I will blow up Yuriko Koike’s election office,” the dispatch added.
Renho Murata, the primary challenger to Koike, who is running for a third term, also received a fax message at her office last week threatening to “repeatedly stab Renho to death with a knife” and set off “explosives on June 24”, Jiji Press quoted campaign officials as saying.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police are investigating the warnings, which come ahead of the July 7 vote, as attempted political intimidation.
“These threats to assassinate candidates are very worrisome, but it is hard to figure out quite where they come from,” said Tadashi Anno, a professor of politics at Tokyo’s Sophia University.
“The obvious suggestion is that they are the result of what is going on in Japanese society at the moment, the problems that are being felt by certain strata of the public,” Anno said, pointing to people working temporary jobs with few safeguards and for relatively low wages.
“A lot of people are just eking out a very meagre existence on the periphery of society, so I guess it should come as no surprise that there is this latent anger against the existing social order,” he said.
“I find that quite ominous for Japanese society, and I hope it does not erupt into the sort of widespread violence that we saw in the 1930s.”
The recent upsurge in political violence – including the 2022 killing of former prime minister Shinzo Abe during a campaign rally in Nara city – “is eerily similar to the May 1932 Incident”, he said, referring to the assassination of then-prime minister Tsuyoshi Inukai by naval officers attempting to overthrow the government.
Hiromi Murakami, a professor of political science at the Tokyo campus of Temple University, blamed the disturbing trend on “a lot of very unhappy people in Japan”, adding “a pervasive frustration is now manifesting itself in violence”.
“We do not yet know the reasons for these death threats, but there is a fear among fundamental conservatives that change is taking place and that they are powerless to stop it, and they are angry at two women being the leading candidates in this election,” Murakami said.
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Suspect formally indicted for murder of former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe
Suspect formally indicted for murder of former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe
She said misinformation and anti-government protests roiling Kenya and parts of Europe could have also shaped the public opinion in Japan.
“I also feel that people are no longer reading newspapers or getting their news from reliable sources and that they are increasingly influenced by the divisive ideas they see on social media and alternative media,” Murakami said.
The shift was “dangerous and feeds into greater violence”, she said.
Authorities are treating the threats against Koike and Renho seriously due to the recent spate of attacks on politicians in Japan, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who escaped unhurt after a man hurled a pipe bomb at him during a campaign speech in Wakayama prefecture last year.
