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It led to a major accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant along the coast.

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

It comes as the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster from 14 years ago continues to hang over the country, conjuring painful memories.

In March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake near Japan's north-east coast spawned a tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people, wiping out entire towns and flooding the reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Japan now operates 14 commercial nuclear reactors, compared to 54 before the Fukushima disaster when 30% of the country's energy was from nuclear sources.