Bill would toughen knife, gun law(JAPAN)

To the point: Possessing a double-edged knife with a blade 5.5 cm or longer would be banned under a revised weapons control law. KYODO PHOTO

Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008

Kyodo News
The government approved a bill Tuesday that would ban possession of certain types of double-edged knives and tighten the criteria for who can own guns.


The revised Firearm and Sword Control Law would ban possession of daggers and other double-edged knives with blades 5.5 cm or longer. Currently, swords, and knives and spears with blades 15 cm or longer, are banned.

The bill would expand the ban on gun ownership to include people with criminal records of stalking and domestic violence as well as people who are bankrupt or deemed suicidal.

The government will submit the bill during the current Diet session. The regulations on swords, knives and spears would enter into force a month after promulgation and those on gun ownership six months to one year after promulgation.

It would be the first revision in 46 years to the definition of knives under the law, and the first in 28 years for gun ownership qualifications.

The National Police Agency had worked to revise the law in the wake of a series of violent crimes in the past year, including a shooting rampage last December in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, that left two people dead and six others wounded, and a stabbing spree in June in the Akihabara district of Tokyo that left seven dead and 10 injured.



The Sasebo shooter, a licensed gun owner, shot and killed himself after his attack.

In the Akihabara rampage, a 25-year-old man used a 13-cm dagger, which is not banned under the current law.

There would be a six-month grace period after the new rules on double-edged knives take effect. During that period, those who possess such knives would have to turn them over to police or ship them abroad.

'Bento' bandit
A man with a box-cutter attempted to rob a convenience store in Tokyo early Tuesday but managed only to make off with two "bento" boxed meals, police said.

Described as being in his 50s or 60s, the suspect threatened an employee at a Seven-Eleven in Adachi Ward with the box-cutter and said, "Give me the money," according to the police.

The suspect ran away after the employee scampered into the back office and called police. When officers and the employee checked the cash register and store shelves, all they found missing were two bento worth a total of ¥1,000, the police said. The incident occurred around 2:45 a.m.