Shinzo Abe’s Assassination Was Rare in a Country With Strict Gun Laws. Here’s What to Know

Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, 67, was shot and killed in the Japanese city of Nara with a homemade firearm on July 8 while he was campaigning for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on the street. The news was especially shocking considering Japan’s reputation as a country that values gun safety; gun sales and gun ownership have been severely restricted and regulated in the country for decades.

Japan, a country of more than 125 million people, experiences significantly less gun violence and other forms of violent crime than the global rate. Annual gun death rates in Japan typically amount to single figures. In 2019, there were only nine deaths from firearms, according to the World Health Organization. That same year, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the rate of licensed firearm owners in Japan was 0.16 per 100 people.

“Even with police, they’re not armed in a militaristic way, as they are in some other countries. Police in Japan have access to guns, but they’re much more discreet,” Alison Young, a professor with expertise in Japanese governance at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, told TIME, “And guns are present in popular culture; movies, tv, manga, etc… but there’s a big divide between that and everyday experience.”

Source: https://time.com/6195409/japan-gun-contol-regulation/