25-year-old Ryuji Kimura on Wednesday has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the attempted murder of Japan’s former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in 2023.

Kimura had hurled a pipe bomb at Kishida as approached a crowd for a speech during an election event in the city of Wakayama, causing the explosion of the homemade device to wreck minor injuries to a police officer and a member of the public, leaving Kishida unharmed.

The attack came less than a year after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead at an outdoor election campaign event.

Kimura during questioning claimed his intention was not to kill Kishida, but to object to the country’s election age regulation which prevented him from getting into politics.

The minimum age to become a member of parliament in Japan is 25 for the House of Representatives and 30 for the House of Councillors, BBC reported.

The 25-year-old further added that he threw the bomb to bring attention to a civil lawsuit he filed in 2022, claiming the age restriction was unconstitutional, which was dismissed.

His defence argued he should not face a charge of attempted murder, as he did not expect the bomb to cause injuries, and that a three-year prison sentence would be reasonable given the extent of those injuries.

The court stated, however, that the explosives were powerful enough to cause fatal damage.

When handing down the ruling, presiding judge Keiko Fukushima noted that “targeting a serving prime minister caused significant anxiety to society as a whole.”

In addition to the attempted murder charge, Kimura was also found guilty of violating explosives regulations and firearms control laws.

His 10-year sentence is five years less than what prosecutors had sought.