A man who appears to be Ryuji Kimura walks toward the venue for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s speech in Wakayama on April 15. (Provided by the Saikazaki fisheries cooperative association)

Photo/Illutration Ryuji Kimura is taken to the Wakayama District Public Prosecutors Office on April 17. (Yuki Shibata)

WAKAYAMA--Police seized powder believed to be used in making explosives at the home of a man accused of throwing an explosive device near Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was campaigning for a Lower House by-election.

Investigators suspect that the silver-colored cylindrical device, which exploded about 50 seconds later at the Saikazaki fishing port in Wakayama on April 15, was a homemade pipe bomb.

Wakayama prefectural police also confiscated items that resemble steel pipes, along with tools, when they searched the home of Ryuji Kimura in Kawanishi, Hyogo Prefecture, on April 16, according to sources close to the investigation.

Kimura, 24, was arrested on the spot on April 15 on suspicion of obstructing a speech by throwing a cylindrical device apparently containing explosives when Kishida was about to give a campaign speech.

He was sent to the Wakayama District Public Prosecutors Office on April 17.

Kishida was not injured in the incident. A police officer in his 30s and a 70-year-old fisherman in the audience sustained slight injuries.

Police suspect that the powder is a chemical that can be an ingredient in making explosives.

Investigators are trying to determine whether it is linked with two cylindrical devices discovered at the scene, one of which remains undetonated, the sources said.

Police have also seized a personal computer, a tablet device and a smartphone at Kimura’s home, where he lived with his mother and elder brother.

Kimura would not speak to investigators, police said on April 16. Police are interviewing Kimura’s family members as well.

Kimura was carrying a black and gray backpack and a handbag, which measures roughly 30 centimeters in width and 40 cm in height, when he visited the fishing port.

The handbag contained what appears to be a fruit knife, which has an approximately 13-cm blade, the sources said.

Police also seized a lighter and a cellphone at the scene.

A man who appears to be Kimura was caught on security cameras about 100 meters north of the venue for Kishida’s speech about seven minutes before the incident.

He was walking toward the venue, carrying a backpack and holding a handbag and an umbrella in his left hand, about 30 seconds after a vehicle believed to be carrying Kishida drove by.

(This article was written by Moeno Kunikata, Junichi Takada and Tatsuya Shimoji.)

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