HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The is a 1958 Japanese law concerning
firearms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...
(and firearm parts/ammunition) and bladed weapons. It was enacted in 1958 and revised a number of times,Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy: Japan Last Updated: 07/30/2015
''
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
'' Retrieved March 21, 2016
Kopel, David Bbr>Japanese Gun Control 1993
''Asia Pacific Law Review'' Retrieved March 21, 2016
Fisher, Ma
A Land Without Guns: How Japan Has Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths July 23, 2012
''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' Retrieved March 21, 2016
most recently in 2008.Diet tightens laws on knives, guns Nov 29, 2008
''
Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...
'' Retrieved March 21, 2016


Background

Gun and sword control started in Japan as early as the late 16th century under
Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...
in order to disarm peasants and control uprisings. Since then, control on guns became increasingly strict for civilians, leading to a number of revisions and new laws during the
Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...
. After
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the Japanese military was disarmed, which led to the Japanese government eventually enacting the Swords and Firearms Possession Control Law in 1958 to prevent gang fights involving guns and swords.


Contents

The initial law was enacted in 1958 with the stated purpose of "...safety regulations necessary for the prevention of harm related to the possession and use of firearms and swords." The regulations and prohibitions within largely concern the possession, use, import, discharge, conveyance, receipt, and sale of firearms and firearm parts, including regulations to follow in order to obtain permission to have a gun, but retains past restrictions on swords and other bladed weapons. Handguns are completely prohibited. The law has been amended multiple times in response to various incidents involving guns. Major revisions include the addition of a ban on importation and raising the age to own a hunting rifle in 1965, and tighter restrictions on shotguns and the shortening of acceptable double-edged blades and daggers to 5.5 centimeters in response to attacks in 2008.


Effects on society

Due to the tight control of firearms, very few people in Japan own a gun. Consequently, gun-related crimes are extremely low; in the past 30 years, the year with the highest amount of gun-related deaths was 39 in 2001, and as low as 4 in 2009. Japan as a whole is largely uninterested in firearms. The public's perception is that guns are inherently dangerous and need to be controlled. Police stations have guns kept in locked cases, but police very rarely use them. Even during student riots involving
Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with fla ...
s, the police did not employ the use of their guns and instead used body armor. The effect on organized crime is that
Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...
syndicates still employ Walther P38 and Tokarev pistols from last century, mainly smuggled in from
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
and
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
. The cheap cost of such antiquated guns (compared to the high cost of more modern guns on the black market), as well as the Yakuza's cultural preference for traditional Japanese swords, explain their continued reliance on the aforementioned handgun models.


References

{{Reflist


External links


Law Outline (English)
Government of Japan Politics of Post-war Japan 1958 in law Japanese legislation Gun politics in Japan