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"There are not many guns made in Japan. The tighter the control is, the higher

2007-06-06 10:52:40

the price goes up," he said.

2007/04/18

Japanese mayor killed by gangster

By CHISAKI WATANABE, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 9 minutes ago

TOKYO - When Nagasaki's mayor was fatally shot in southern Japan, it wasn't

much of a surprise that a gangster was arrested for the attack. In a country

where regular citizens face strict gun laws, the mob does most of the shooting.

Iccho Ito, 61, was shot twice in the back Tuesday evening and died early

Wednesday. Tetsuya Shiroo, a senior member of Japan's largest crime syndicate,

the Yamaguchi-gumi, was captured at the scene and admitted to the attack,

police said.

"This murder, which took place in the middle of an election campaign, is a

threat to democracy," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said early Wednesday. "We must

eradicate violence firmly."

The killing reportedly linked to Shiroo's demands for city compensation for

car damage caused by a pothole focused attention on the role of the Japanese

mafia, or "yakuza," in the rare shootings here.

Of the 53 gun attacks reported in 2006, two-thirds 36 were blamed on

organized crime groups, the National Police Agency says.

Handguns are strictly banned for ordinary citizens in Japan, and only police

officers and others such as shooting instructors with job-related reasons

can own them. Hunting rifles are also strictly licensed and regulated.

Crime syndicates, however, have the money, numbers and international

connections that enable them to smuggle foreign guns into Japan.

"The mayor of Nagasaki was killed by a gun that was illegally possessed," Chief

Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said. "The fact that criminal organizations

have stashed away guns through smuggling and illicit sales ... is also a

cause."

The attack came despite a sharp drop in shootings in recent years.

The number of reported gun attacks have plunged from 158 in 2002 with 70

percent blamed on yakuza to 53 last year. The number of illegal guns seized

by police dropped by nearly 40 percent from 2002 to 2006, when 458 firearms

were confiscated.

Even gangsters are careful when it comes to opening fire, preferring to use

knives for mob hits because murders with guns typically carry heavier

sentences. Instead, mobsters sometimes use guns for intimidation, shooting the

outside of an office, for instance, as a warning to the occupants.

Still, public concern about gangster gunfights remains high amid a widely

publicized turf war between Japan's two largest underworld gangs earlier this

year that ended a yearlong lull in gang violence.

The boss of a gang affiliated with the Tokyo-based Sumiyoshi-kai syndicate was

shot to death in February, and the killing was believed to have prompted at

least three more shootings at gangland headquarters in Tokyo.

"I want Japanese laws to protect the general public," said Shinichi Tada, a

44-year-old manufacturing company worker in Tokyo. "I do not want Japan to be

like the U.S.," he added, referring to Monday's massacre in Virginia that

killed at least 33 people.

Japan's organized crime groups are typically involved in real estate and

construction kickback schemes, extortion, gambling, the sex industry and drug

trafficking.

Gunrunning is another main activity. Between 1996 and 2005, 8,180 smuggled guns

were seized by police, with the United States being the top origin with nearly

30 percent, the NPA says. The Philippines was second with about 10 percent.

Noriyoshi Takemura, criminologist at Toin University in Yokohama, said tight

weapons laws make Japan an attractive market for gunrunners.

"There are not many guns made in Japan. The tighter the control is, the higher

the price goes up," he said.