336 Online Posts Hinting Attacks Found during Lower House Race

Tokyo, Feb. 12 (Jiji Press)--A total of 336 posts hinting at assaulting dignitaries were made online in the lead-up to Sunday’s House of Representatives election, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

Japanese police discovered the posts, made between Jan. 23, when the all-important lower chamber of parliament was dissolved, and Saturday, the final day of the official campaign period of the general election, through internet monitoring conducted as part of their efforts to prevent attacks by lone offenders. The campaign period began Jan. 27.

One of the problematic posts said, “It’s time for a second Yamagami to get to work,” apparently referring to Tetsuya Yamagami, who was given an effective life sentence by a district court last month for fatally shooting former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his election stump speech in July 2022.

Among other cases, Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department issued a warning to a woman in her 40s, a resident of the Japanese capital, based on an analysis of her past online posts after the police department of Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, identified a threatening social media post.

In another case, the MPD, working with the security department, found and questioned a man at a stump speech venue who on social media had hinted at harming Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]