Photo/Illutration The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

KOFU--Police arrested a former town official from Nagano Prefecture on suspicion of sending threatening letters and metal blades to the Yamanashi Prefecture governor in protest of his stay-at-home request for those unvaccinated against COVID-19.

Yamanashi prefectural police on Feb. 16 said the suspect, Shinichi Takano, 51, has admitted to the allegations.

“We are relieved to hear the news of his arrest,” Yamanashi Governor Kotaro Nagasaki said in a statement. “It is an extremely despicable conduct to push one’s claims with threats or violence.”

Takano resigned from the Obuse town government in neighboring Nagano Prefecture on Jan. 31 following other problems with the law.

In his latest arrest, he is suspected of sending two envelopes addressed to Nagasaki and senior officials at the prefectural government office in January and March 2022, according to police.

Each envelope contained a threatening letter and a metal blade apparently from a box cutter.

Nagasaki reported the threats to police.

The letters included a protest about the governor’s request in January 2022 for those who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to refrain from unnecessary outings, Yamanashi prefectural officials said.

Takano was serving as a section chief at the Obuse town’s board of education when he sent the threatening letters, town officials said.

Nagano prefectural police arrested Takano in January this year on suspicion of pasting a large piece of paper on a traffic regulation sign on a prefectural road in Obuse in June last year. That act made it impossible to see what was written on the sign.

He was accused of destruction of property, and he resigned as a town official in late January.

“It is regrettable that a former official who was arrested once has been arrested again,” Takashi Arai, vice mayor of Obuse, told reporters.

(This article was written by Takuya Ikeda and Kazuki Endo.)

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