Envelopes containing black powder sent to Akutagawa Award winners
TOKYO —
Police said Wednesday that two envelopes containing black powder were sent to authors Shinya Tanaka and To Enjo, who shared the prestigious literary Akutagawa Award on Jan 17 this year.
According to police, the A4-sized envelopes were sent to the two authors, care of publisher Bungeishunju, on Tuesday morning, TV Asahi reported. On the outside of the envelopes were the words “Heat-generating explosive material enclosed,” police said.
Police said an analysis showed the powder was harmless and they have dismissed the incident as a prank, TV Asahi reported.
Japan Today
Order by Time Order by Popularity
13 Comments
Login to comment
-2
MaboDofuIsSpicy
Anti-matter anthrax comes in black.
-1
Elvensilvan
Erm ... did the enclosed heat-generating explosive material fizzle?
Prank or not, the ones that send these envelopes should be getting a spank!
-2
LoveNot
Somebody must have really liked their literature.
-1
cactusJack
Pop rocks?
-1
6wings
Akutagawa's ashes. (^_~)
0
Andrew Matthews
Ummm... all explosives are heat generating. It's the speed at which they generate heat. Of course technically rust is an incredibly SLOW explosion... :-)
-2
plasticmonkey
There is something fishy going on here. According to the Mainichi, just prior to this incident, Shintaro Ishihara quit as a judge for the Akutagawa Prize, calling the current winners a "parade of rubbish". I couldn't find details what made Ishihara so offended. I'd like to know. According to another Mainichi story, the envelopes with black powder were sent by someone claiming to be from Sekihotai, an infamous right wing group responsible for the death of a reporter and threats against two former prime ministers because of changes made to textbooks and their depictions of Japanese troops atrocities in WWII. Did these two writers somehow "misrepresent" Japanese culture or history?
0
warnerbro
One of the prize winners mocked Ishihara in his press conference. At least one of Ishihara's goons must have taken offence.
0
Gurukun
And the post office or the mailman didn't see this on the envelopes?
0
mitoguitarman
Is it the little people?
1
Ayler
There should be a separate award for that.
0
shirokuma2011
He not only mocked Ishihara, he announced that he was only "going through the trouble" of accepting the award, after having been rejected several times in the past, to avoid confusion in the ranks of the metropolitan government and among the people of Tokyo. It was the strangest press conference I've seen here since the infamous "My mind's a blank, my mind's a blank!" performance by the owner of Kitcho's Osaka branch a couple of years back...
This guy did just about everything but spit on the trophy... or medal... or whatever they gave him.
2
BurakuminDes
Anyone who mocks, lampoons and disrespects senile old Ishihara is alright in my books.
Back to top