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Japanese authorities have arrested a suspect and seized a gun, which they described as an improvised weapon.
How hard is it to get a gun in Japan?
Anyone trying to shoot and own a gun in Japan has to apply for a permit, which starts with attending a class on gun safety, and passing a written test.
It’s a long process involving background checks on family, work and criminal records, and requiring a medical certificate that attests to mental health. Police look into details like potential alcohol problems or whether the hopeful gun owner has a history of domestic or neighborhood disputes.
An officer will visit to inspect the locker that is legally required to store the gun and should be affixed to a wall. It must have three locks on the outside, the rules say. There’s also a full-day training course on safe shooting and practicing techniques.
In 2020, there were nearly 192,000 licensed firearms, largely shotguns and hunting rifles, according to the National Police Agency, in a country with a population estimated at around 125 million.
How rare are shootings in Japan?
“Gun violence is very, very rare,” according to Satona Suzuki, a lecturer in Japanese History at SOAS, University of London.
With stringent restrictions on firearms, gun violence is often associated with the yakuza, the Japanese criminal network. Last year, 10 shootings were reported in Japan not involving accidents or suicides. They led to one death and four injuries. Of the incidents, eight were linked to the yakuza, according to the police agency.
Political assassinations that were a feature of the late 1920s and 1930s were now seen as “a thing of the past,” according to Suzuki.
“People will be shocked,” she said after Friday’s shooting.
“They’ll be scared, but it’s not like America. It’s not crazy gunman going to schools or malls,” Suzuki added. “It’s a different kind of anxiety.”
Abe’s own grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, survived a stabbing assassination attempt in 1960 when he was prime minister.
Another former prime minister, Hosokawa Morihiro, was unharmed after a shooter fired at him in 1994 at a Tokyo hotel. And in a different shooting in 1992, a gunman failed to injure Deputy Prime Minister Shin Kanemaru, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party that Abe belonged to, according to public broadcaster NHK.
In 2007, the mayor of the city of Nagasaki, Ito Itcho, was shot dead by a man authorities described as a member of an organized crime group.
Adela Suliman in London contributed to this report.
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