Assassination of Shinzo Abe | Japan, a country that does not like guns

L’assassinat de l’ancien premier ministre Shinzo Abe avec une arme à feu a surpris et choqué le Japon, qui possède l’une des législations les plus strictes au monde en matière de contrôle des armes. Explications.

Éric-Pierre Champagne
La Presse

Une arme artisanale

Tout porte à croire que Shinzo Abe a été tué par une arme artisanale fabriquée par le principal suspect arrêté par la police. « Nous avons déterminé que [l’arme utilisée] was clearly artisanal in appearance, although an analysis is in progress,” a police officer told Agence France-Presse. The suspect was photographed at the scene holding a large black square object that appeared to have two barrels. Officers in protective gear began to search his home in the late afternoon and confiscated “several objects resembling homemade firearms”. ” He [le suspect] was forced to build a weapon from A to Z and it looks like weapons that are made in prison”, notes Francis Langlois, history professor at the Cégep de Trois-Rivières and member of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in strategic and diplomatic at UQAM.

Shinzo Abe was shot and killed Friday by an assailant who opened fire on him in the middle of an election rally in Nara, western Japan. Arrested for the murder, the suspect, 41-year-old unemployed Tetsuya Yamagami, confessed to committing the crime and said he used a homemade weapon, according to a senior Nara area police official. The arrested man “said he held a grudge against a certain organization and he confessed to committing the crime because he believed former Prime Minister Abe was related to him”, the policeman told reporters, refusing to comment. give more details.

Prohibited weapons in Japan

Anyone wishing to own a firearm in Japan must go through a rigorous verification process that includes several steps. Each applicant must first have a clean criminal record. To acquire a weapon, the Japanese must in particular submit to a written examination, provide a medical certificate as well as a psychological evaluation, undergo a drug test and pass a shooting test. The only weapons allowed for civilians in Japan are shotguns and air rifles. Possession of a handgun can lead to a stay in prison.

Very few weapons in circulation

According to Gunpolicy.org, from the University of Sydney, Australia, Japan is one of the countries with the fewest guns in the world. Just over 310,000 weapons are in circulation for a population of nearly 126 million people. By contrast, the number of firearms owned by civilians in the United States – between 265 and 393 million – vastly exceeds the population of Japan. Still according to Gunpolicy.org, there are 12.7 million firearms in Canada, or 34.70 guns per 100 inhabitants.

Very few deaths

The equation is simple: with so few guns in circulation, the number of gun deaths in Japan is very low. Only nine deaths were recorded in 2018, compared to 39,740 in the United States. “Japan is an extraordinarily safe society,” recalls Francis Langlois. Firearms are not at all in the culture of the Japanese. In comparison, 695 firearm deaths occurred in Canada in 2018.

A legacy… from the United States

Ironically, Japan’s gun control laws were introduced by the United States at the end of World War II, Langlois points out. “The Americans wanted to disarm Japan and they imposed a new constitution that banned guns. It’s quite ironic, ”says the expert, who has notably taught in Japan. The professor also expects security around Japanese politicians to be tightened after the assassination of Shinzo Abe.

Some notable killings in Japan

Deadly arson attacks

On December 17, 2021, a 60-year-old started a fire in a psychiatric clinic in Osaka, of which he was a former patient, causing the death of 25 people. The country had already been shaken by the arson attack on an animation studio in Kyoto on July 18, 2019, in which 36 people were killed and 33 others were injured.

Massacre of disabled people

On July 26, 2016, a 30-year-old man broke into a special home for disabled people in Sagamihara, in the western suburbs of Tokyo, in the middle of the night. This former employee goes from room to room to stab residents, killing 19 people and injuring 26, half of them seriously.

Bystanders stabbed in Tokyo

In June 2008, a man drove a truck into passers-by in broad daylight in Akihabara, a Tokyo district famous for its electronics stores, before getting out of the vehicle and stabbing random people in the crowd with a double-bladed blade. sharp. Seven people are killed and ten injured.

Assassination of the mayor of Nagasaki

In April 2007, the mayor of Nagasaki, Iccho Ito, a convinced pacifist, was shot dead in the middle of the street while campaigning for his re-election.

Sarin gas attack in the subway

On the morning of March 20, 1995, several members of the Aum cult dropped bags of sarin gas into crowded Tokyo subway cars, which they burst using sharpened umbrella tips. The attack caused the death of 13 people and the poisoning of more than 6,300 others.

With Agence France-Presse