…And I doubt they were incompetent. Rather, they were probably offering the level of protection that had been determined to be appropriate for the person, place, time, and situation. Like the Merkel anecdote above.
As an “average citizen” I doubt you (or I) would be made privy to all the layers and types of security in those situations. I doubt that you (or I) would notice any but the most obvious, ham-fisted efforts.
Sometimes, I think the principal may overrule certain security recommendations even if they’re insane for doing so. Other times, as with Trump wanting to go to the Capitol on January 6th, a principal’s wishes may be ignored or shot down (heh).
I’m sure that security details have screwed the pooch more than once and I don’t pretend to have any special knowledge about these operations. It’s not my line of work.
Fortunately, five or six Medal of Honor winning former SEAL Dopers will be along shortly to use acronyms no one has heard of outside of Special Forces or their mom’s basement TV and set us allllllll straight about the how inept Japanese bodyguards are in general and how mass shootings help make gonzo American uber-Rambos unstoppable bodyguards.
For, you see, Japanese security of the NLORTSP only use MT-17–QTS which is nothing more than a pea-shooter, where as good American heroes like the YRSSJR-1 and 2 only make use of GG2M’s and RGPLL-200’s as seen in movies like AAGS and AAGS 2-The Final Battle.
If those silly, horribly-trained Japanese bodyguards lived in a REAL country where little kids are killed by the ten or twenty every month or so and where real men all own five assault rifles each they would have been armed with bazookas and all would have been awesome!!!