A 19-year-old living in Nagoya was arrested Jan. 5 over death threats targeting a prominent student activist and his family, Kanagawa prefectural police said.
Police said the suspect has admitted to the crime, quoting him as saying, “I did it because I wanted to let off steam.”
The unemployed minor was arrested on suspicion of intimidation.
Aki Okuda, a 23-year-old student at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo and a core member of the Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy-s (SEALDs), revealed on Sept. 28 that the university received a letter on Sept. 24 that threatened to kill him and his family.
An officer of the Totsuka Police Station said Jan. 5 the teenager is believed to have sent the letter to the Yokohama Campus of Meiji Gakuin University around Sept. 20.
SEALDs was one of the main organizers of huge protests around the Diet building last year that demanded a retraction of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s security bills.
The security legislation was enacted in September, expanding the role of the Self-Defense Forces overseas and allowing Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.
Source and image: Asahi
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