Photo/Illutration The letter threatening a shooting attack, left, was delivered to Mindan’s Tokushima prefectural regional headquarters in an envelope, right. (Provided by Mindan’s Tokushima prefectural regional headquarters)

TOKUSHIMA--The Tokushima District Court handed a man a suspended 10-month prison sentence on May 31 for threatening a shooting attack at a local office of an organization representing South Korean residents in Japan. 

The defendant, 40, made the threat in a letter dropped in September into a postal box of the Tokushima prefectural regional headquarters of the Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan), a nationwide organization of ethnic Koreans affiliated with South Korea, according to prosecutors. 

The letter said the perpetrator will “purify (Mindan) with live bullets” if it continues an anti-Japan policy.

The defendant, charged with blackmail, was sentenced to a 10-month prison term, suspended for four years. He will be placed under probation.

Prosecutors, who described his act as a “hate crime,” had sought a 10-month imprisonment.

“The defendant developed and reinforced a one-sided feeling of hatred against South Korea and Mindan,” Judge Hirotoshi Hosokane said. “The conduct was laden with prejudices and was extremely self-righteous and self-centered.”

But Hosokane added that the man, who lives in Tokushima’s Obaracho district, had apologized and said he intends to pay a financial settlement.

In their opening and closing statements, prosecutors said the defendant’s act was selfish and vicious because he became unilaterally angrier out of discriminatory sentiments.

“A crime triggered by prejudice or hatred against an individual or a group with racial, ethnic, religious and other specific attributes can never be justified for any reason,” a prosecutor said.

The defendant admitted the charges and apologized. Defense lawyers sought leniency, noting that the defendant reflected on his actions and showed remorse.

Mindan’s local office served as a base for exchanges between Japanese and ethnic Korean residents.

But a security camera was installed at the entrance after the incident and officials made it a rule to always lock the door.

During the trial, the head of Mindan’s prefectural regional headquarters had called for a harsh penalty, saying, “Japanese society will become rotten to the core if this kind of hate crime is left unaddressed.”

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