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Do You Know About Japan’s Highly-Restrictive Gun Laws? ‘The Polar Opposite’ of America’s Second Amendment

Jan. 28, 2013 8:48am Billy Hallowell

These Are Japans Highly Restrictive Gun Laws | Second Amendment

Credit: AP

When it comes to gun control, Japan differs greatly from the United States. To begin, handguns are banned in the East Asian nation and heavy restrictions are placed on other weapons. And while firearms are few and far between in Japanese culture, so is gun violence. With 130 million residents, there were only seven gun murders in 2011. In contrast, in the U.S., thousands of killings are conducted using firearms each year.

Considering the disparity in the number of gun-related deaths, some might question whether Japan’s restrictive policies are helping keep these rates low. However, such a discussion is a contentious one that involves intense cultural and legal analysis. July 2012 report by The Atlantic describes the policy differences surrounding and governing weapons:

Even the most basic framework of Japan’s approach to gun ownership is almost the polar opposite of America’s. U.S. gun law begins with the second amendment’s affirmation of the “right of the people to keep and bear arms” and narrows it down from there. Japanese law, however, starts with the 1958 act stating that “No person shall possess a firearm or firearms or a sword or swords,” later adding a few exceptions. In other words, American law is designed to enshrine access to guns, while Japan starts with the premise of forbidding it. The history of that is complicated, but it’s worth noting that U.S. gun law has its roots in resistance to British gun restrictions, whereas some academic literature links the Japanese law to the national campaign to forcibly disarm the samurai, which may partially explain why the 1958 mentions firearms and swords side-by-side.

But it’s not as though guns don’t exist in Japan; in fact, hundreds of thousands of weapons are registered and in use. Though its gun ownership rates are tiny compared to the United States, Japan has more than 120,000 registered gun owners and more than 400,000 firearms.

So, what’s the secret to the low gun violence rate? Some Japanese argue that the cultural view on firearms, mixed with the tough laws, is what helps keep violent gun death rates low.

“We have a very different way of looking at guns in Japan than people in the United States,” said Tsutomu Uchida, who runs the KanagawaOhi Shooting Range, an Olympic-style training center for rifle enthusiasts. “In the U.S., people believe they have a right to own a gun. In Japan, we don’t have that right. So our point of departure is completely different.”

Credit: Getty Images

Treating gun ownership as a privilege and not a right leads to some important policy differences (let’s also keep in mind that Japan even registers Samurai swords, as reported recently by CNN). To say that the East Asian nation is strict on firearms is an understatement, as the process to obtain a weapon is intense.

First, anyone who wants to get a gun must demonstrate a valid reason why they should be allowed to do so. Under longstanding Japanese policy, there is no good reason why any civilian should have a handgun, so — aside from a few dozen accomplished competitive shooters — they are completely banned. This, of course, runs in contradiction to the U.S. Constitution, which affords Americans the right to bear arms.

In Japan, gun violence doesn’t come regularly — and when it does, the Associated Press claims that it is attributable to criminals. Virtually all handgun-related crime comes at the hands of gangsters, who obtain them on the black market. But such crime is extremely rare and when it does occur, police crack down hard on whatever gang is involved, so even gangsters see it as a last-ditch option.

There is an exception in firearm policy, though. Rifle ownership is allowed for the general public, but it is still tightly controlled. Applicants first must go to their local police station and declare their intent. After a lecture and a written test comes range training, then a background check. Police likely will even talk to the applicant’s neighbors to see if he or she is known to have a temper, financial troubles or an unstable household. And on the mental health front, doctor must sign a form saying the applicant has not been institutionalized and is not epileptic, depressed, schizophrenic, alcoholic or addicted to drugs.

And the restrictions don’t end there. Gun owners must tell the police where in the home the gun will be stored. It must be kept under lock and key, must be kept separate from ammunition, and preferably chained down. It’s legal to transport a gun in the trunk of a car to get to one of the country’s few shooting ranges, but if the driver steps away from the vehicle and gets caught, that’s a violation.

In a recent CNN report, one man who went through the process said that it took a total of 40 days for him to take the classes, file the necessary paperwork, get medical clearance and obtain his gun. Despite the elongated process, the individual said that he supports the process.

“This is a tool that can end someone’s life,” he said. “There should be a strict screening process.”

Watch the report, below, which sheds further light on the process and the legalities surrounding it:

While these regulations may seem like a dream-come-true for gun control advocates, people like Uchida claim that Japan’s gun laws are frustrating, overly complicated and can seem capricious — all elements that would be viewed as problematic and unconstitutional to conservative Americans who do not currently live under such regulatory structures.

“It would be great if we had an organization like the National Rifle Association to stand up for us,” he said, though he acknowledged that there is no significant movement in Japan to ease gun restrictions.

Despite his view on the NRA and gun rights, Uchida noted that cultural differences would make applying American laws to Japan quite problematic. Furthermore, he said that the Japan’s system wouldn’t work in the U.S., citing the tendency for Japanese to defer to authority and place a very high premium on an ordered, low-crime society.

“We have our way of doing things, and Americans have theirs,” said Yasuharu Watabe, 67, who has owned a gun for 40 years. “But there need to be regulations. Put a gun in the wrong hands, and it’s a weapon.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Comments (104)

housetops
Posted on January 29, 2013 at 1:14pm
The death by samarai sword statistic please.

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Bill Wallace
Posted on January 29, 2013 at 12:09pm
A different culture.

Remember, this was a nation that still sent Samurai against modern weapons, against guns and cannons. They have never been a gun culture.

Now, threaten to take away their Ginsu and see what happens.

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Endstatism
Posted on January 29, 2013 at 5:15am
Actually, weapons control is heavily infused into Japanese culture. Control of guns and swords date back to the shogun era. Only the samurai were allowed weapons and the penalty was death for mere possession of a sword.
The gun control advocates like to cite Japan as a example. What they do`nt tell you is they have over 30,000 suicides annually and according to some analysts, the Japanese government is downplaying the real number. It has been suggested that suicides may run as high as 100,000 per year. All this in a society that is a gun grabbers dream. Wait, China and North Korea is a gun control freak`s paradise.

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mensa517
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 11:41pm
People seem to forget that after the war and having the bomb dropped on them, the Japanese were “occupied by the Americans who also forbade and outlawed them from having guns—-as was the agreement ….So—if you think about that and what’s happening now with guns in America and the banning of certain ones, you should be able to understand this assualt on the @nd Amendment was palnned years ago and is only now being enacted—–It was once said it will not happen overnight or in a year—it will take years to disarm the American people.” LO AND BEHOLD—-WE ARE AT THE CUSP… of a well planned agenda….

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Salamander
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:55pm
Why the switch between ‘murders’ and ‘killings’ in the first paragraph? Such a ploy does not mitigate the deception of mixing apples and oranges! A fair comparison would match ‘murders’ with ‘murders’ and ‘killings’ with ‘killings’, and THEN explain the differences in our societies and our cultures. While they are at it, they might take up the differences in other intendional deaths, such as suicides! Of course, in Japan, other means are used more frequently, just due to access!

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KEELHAULUM
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:22pm
“This is a tool that can end someone’s life,” he said. “There should be a strict screening process.”
THE FACT: This can be said about any tool from a pencil or a fork to a car.
“But there need to be regulations. Put a *Fill in the Blank* in the wrong hands, and it’s a weapon.”
Put a baseball bat in the wrong hands and it becomes a weapon,….

See how unique we are, no body else shared the Freedom that we had and all you liberal dumbA$$es, both Democrat and Republican have pissed it away. Don’t expect me to give up my Freedoms just because you don’t want yours.

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ehanson005
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:58pm
Japan dosent need guns because they have Giant Fighting Robots!

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Marsh626
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:40pm
The real reason for Japan’s low gun violence rates isn’t regulations, it’s race and IQ.

It’s widely known to anyone who’s studied race, IQ and violent crime statistics that Northeast Asians have extremely low gun violence rates. Even in America, Northeast Asian immigrants commit virtually zero gun murders.

Violent crime rates are also extremely low for White Europeans and White European immigrants.

Whites and Northeast Asians are also the only 2 racial groups with average IQs over 100.

“Hispanics” and blacks commit the large majority of gun murders in America. Especially non-family related. They also have the lowest IQs.

And as to the argument that gun bans reduce suicides, nope, people just turn to other ways to kill themselves. The Japanese prove that with their extremely high suicide rates despite very low rates of gun ownership.

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Chaly
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:15pm
I guess I missed the sentence that included how many murders there were in the whole country of any sort per capita. You might just figure that with that information you would know how many folks are killed by other means. Ya, we wouldn’t want that to get out! By the way, with things so great in Japan why do so many want to move here?

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gatorDennis
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 4:46pm
The report stated “In contrast, in the U.S., thousands of killings are conducted using firearms each year.” I would be courious to know the stats on these shootings. I would suspect that the vast majority of them would be gang related, drug related & basically other criminal activity. I know there are a few accidents and actual murders. I have no idea about the stats.
I do know our nation has and is being destroyed not by our guns but by the Marxist, Islamists and others that want our resources.

Ever wonder if anyone is actually saving us !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Obamass looking for military that will shoot Americans, Chinese evaluating our resources, commies everywhere (I mean literally everywhere).
My efforts to inform neighbors, friends and family are frutile. I know there are millions of citizens that are aware but no leaders. I only hear facts being passed around. The Germans waited & hoped Hitler would be stopped but no one stopped him while he was building his forces and then it was too late.
God help us is not getting it. Why God seems to not be helping is a mystery.

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awkingsley
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 3:40pm
There is no way to compare our culture with the Japanese. The Japanese are still the most honest ethical culture in the world, values inculcated by tradition. The Japanese are also an ethnocentric culture. Only Japanese can be Japanese citizens, so there is no racial strife and no one else to blame for failures.

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Panix
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 3:32pm
Japan has a very strict immigration policy, and it is almost impossible to to become a citizen.. This is definitely not a melting pot, and as a result, everyone is in lockstep. So if we kick out the foreigners, make our kids go to school and study 18 hours a day, and prevent foreign ownership of any piece of the US, teach honor, handwork, and personal responsibility, we could do the same thing here.

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57nomad
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 1:36pm
FTA:

” the Japanese law to the national campaign to forcibly disarm the samurai,”

This isn’t quite right. The Japanese were disarmed because guns would allow a peasant to kill a Samurai. It was part of the closing of Japan to Western influence. It was the Samurai and ruling class that took the guns away and they did it for the same reason as tyrants always do, to maintain power by keep the tyrannized powerless. This is a lesson to be learned and relearned.

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pduffy
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 1:14pm
So there is no murder in Japan? What’s the murder rate? Just because murders are not committed with guns, does not mean there are no murders. Cain murdered Abel long before any guns were ever thought of. This is a ‘straw man’ argument.

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- 57nomad
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 1:49pm
  The murder rate in medieval Europe was 10 times higher than it is now and there were no guns at all. Make of that what you will
  
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glenp827
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 1:10pm
Prison food is also FISH HEADS and RICE

Also Japan doesn’t have the **** lipped JACKSON COALITION living there either. Let’s ship em a few welfare crowds and see what they would do

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Lotus503
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 12:13pm
Japan has a homogeneous culture comprised of the Japanese people, who are of the same race and cultural background. They have very few people from other races and cultures mixed in.

Comparing the U. S., with it’s vast array of races and cultures to Japan in any way is absolutely ridiculous. There is no comparison possible, whatsoever.

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- Metallicat
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 12:27pm
  They really need a “Like” feature on this site
  
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ckhenson
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 11:03am
So if another Tojo comes along and seizes power and dissolves the Diet, what then?

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dosdelgados
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:59am
I’m sick of the liberal drivel hijacking the Blaze recently.

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Chuck7884
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:50am
If You have ever seen what Japanese Police does to someone who screws up with a firearm.You would or might be sickened.They preset the man to the victim take the fire arm in question destroy it and then commence to beat the gun owner with there JP-rods until the victim cry’s out to stop the beating.I saw this in 1980 at Camp Fuji training grounds. A hunter accidentally shot a Marine that was running on a trail with a shotgun.Was not a pretty sight I figured after the broke the shotgun on the flagpole outside B.A.S. That would be it and the man would be hauled off to jail, Man was I wrong.

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Metallicat
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:46am
I’m kind of sick of the “Right wing media” helping to push the gun control issue in favor of the gun grabbers,and helping to make the argument for them and pushing it on us. It seems the “Right wing media” is trying to convince us to surrender our second amendment rights,by comparing us to the unarmed wimps of the world,and showing us how swell they have it being at the mercy of their government.

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Metallicat
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:36am
This is not a fair comparison. Our cultures are as different as night and day. In modern America being a thief and a thug is glorified. Japan is a shame culture that does not glorify the criminal,and they are actually raised to be considerate of others and respect their elders. They are a very polite society compared to America. The overall crime rate in Japan has always been lower than Americas. They renounced violence after the destruction they caused during WWII and self imposed disarming themselves. Which they regret now that China is sharpening its claws and hungry for war.

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Cybil
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:33am
Check out the stories here about stabbings, poisoning, kifing, smothering etc in Japan. Go ahead. No guns but still death.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime

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Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:21am
You cannot extrapolate anything from this. Alinsky radicals have engineered a disease inside America. Now we are going to analyze a remedy without taking the main cause into account? The problem is alinsky radicals meddling with the intent if taking down a free society. It’s about HOW we got here and what are we going to do about IT!
Guns and self-defense are the only thing standing IN THE WAY of the progressive dream to bring chaos and disorder INTO your home.

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700P
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:18am
Japanese gun laws are inflexible and frustrating enough that our military will often use transport aircraft instead of airlines. For those of you who have no idea what POTUS & FLOTUS vacations cost, it means a lot of extra costs passed on to tax payers because of these stupid laws. Given cultural considerations, I don’t think homicide rates would be any higher with more freedom of gun ownership and their suicide rates are already through the roof (so I can’t imagine them any higher…unless a percentage of them chose suicide-by-cop and bumped up homicide rates along the way).

Anyone wanting this type of regulation is free to move to Japan. Don’t expect to not be discriminated against because you’re not Japanese but that’s OK because you can start a campaign to enlighten them.

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resme
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:13am
I love Japan and it’s culture. I could careless about their gun laws, tho.

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