Rightist faces 12 years in torching of Kato home

YAMAGATA (Kyodo) Prosecutors demanded a 12-year prison term Wednesday for a rightwing activist accused of torching the home of Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Koichi Kato's mother in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, last year, because of Kato's political stance.

The home of the mother of Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Koichi Kato burns in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, on March 15, 2006. KYODO PHOTO

"Resorting to violence as a way to show one's objection to political speech cannot be tolerated," prosecutors said in a closing statement at the Yamagata District Court. "It was an act that infringed on the freedom of speech."

Masahiro Horigome, 66, a member of a Tokyo-based rightist group, stands accused of spreading gasoline in one of the bedrooms and igniting it on the evening of Aug. 15.

The fire gutted the house and an adjacent building. Kato's mother was out at the time and thus not harmed.

Horigome was found at the scene after attempting hara-kiri there.

The prosecutors argued earlier that Horigome had lost hope after being laid off last year and had many debts, leading him to attempt a "heroic" death to make a name for himself among rightists.

They said he decided to target Kato after reading a magazine article in which the LDP lawmaker criticized then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine.

Horigome's lawyers, in seeking leniency, argued, without elaborating, that the defendant had merely tried to exercise "the right to defend his home country."

Kato, a veteran House of Representatives member, was one of Koizumi's closest allies, but later parted ways with him due to differences of opinion.

A former rightwing activist was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of throwing a Molotov cocktail at Nikkei Inc.'s headquarters in Tokyo last July, police said.

The attack was motivated by a story in the business daily about how Emperor Hirohito, known posthumously as Showa, stopped visiting Yasukuni Shrine as he was upset with the enshrinement of Class-A war criminals, they said.

"I intended to give a warning to the newspaper, which aimed at manipulating public opinion over the Yasukuni issue by using the emperor, who I worship as a god," Motohide Hiraoka, 42, was quoted as telling investigators.