Last updated: September 2007
Activist points finger at PM

It’s not uncommon for people to point the finger at politicians, but one Japanese activist took it a little far.

Yoshihiro Tanjo was arrested for cutting off his little finger and posting it to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Tanjo said he was protesting against Mr Abe’s refusal to visit a war shrine, on the 62nd anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II and that he thought he would be ignored if he simply sent a letter.

The Yasukuni shrine honours Japan’s war dead but is controversial because it also honours convicted war criminals.

Mr Tanjo, 54, was charged with intimidation tactics after severing a finger and sending it to the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters, police said.

The package also contained a letter of protest and a DVD with ‘very graphic images’ of Tanjo cutting off his finger.