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PM gets severed finger
23/08/2007 12:02 - (SA)
Tokyo - A Japanese nationalist sent part of a severed finger to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for not paying respects at a controversial war shrine, police said after arresting him on Thursday.
Yoshihiro Tanjo, 54, was charged with intimidation tactics after chopping off part of a little finger and sending it to the headquarters of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, a police spokesperson said.
Tanjo, who is unemployed but heads a right-wing group in the western city of Kurashiki, also sent a letter of protest and a DVD showing his act.
"In the DVD there were very graphic images of him chopping off a part of his finger, which he had filmed himself," the Kurashiki police spokesperson said.
"The man is detained here with part of his finger gone, cut at the first joint, I'd say."
A snippet of Tanjo's DVD aired on Japanese television showed him sitting solemnly in a traditional kimono and reading from a scroll. A large Japanese flag hung behind him.
Abe avoided the Yasukuni shrine on August 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.
The Shinto shrine in central Tokyo venerates war dead and war criminals alike and has been a sore point in Japan's relations with neighbours still resentful over wartime occupation.
The conservative premier was a frequent visitor to the shrine in the past, but has stayed away since taking office in an effort to improve ties with China and South Korea.
In Japan's underworld, gangsters sometimes chop off their little fingers to demonstrate loyalty or to take responsibility for failure.
- AFP
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