Japanese gun violence may mean underworld unrest

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Police stormed an apartment earlier today and seized a suspected
gangster who had barricaded himself inside after a deadly shooting in
the streets of a Tokyo suburb in violence officials said may signal
infighting in the Japanese underworld.

The violence came days after the mayor of Nagasaki was gunned down by a
reputed mobster in an unrelated killing. Crime syndicates are
overwhelmingly responsible for Japan’s rare gun attacks.

The events began yesterday when the suspected gangster fatally shot
another mobster from the same group on the street in a western suburb of
the capital, said local police official Yukio Tonose.

The shooter, identified as Yuji Take****a, 36, then barricaded himself
inside his own apartment, firing a series of shots toward surrounding
officers, said a Tokyo Metropolitan Police spokesman who spoke on
condition of anonymity, under police protocol.

After police stormed the apartment, public broadcaster NHK showed
paramedics carrying the suspect on a stretcher out of his apartment.
Police said he is believed to have shot himself in the head and was
taken to a nearby hospital, with his condition unknown.

Second shooting

Shootings are relatively rare in Japan, which has strict gun control
laws, but yesterday’s incident was the second this week.

“The cases must be investigated inside out, and I would like (the
authorities) to step up anti-crime measures,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
told reporters later yesterday. “We must make utmost effort to eradicate
such shootings and gangster groups.”

On Tuesday, a gangster who unsuccessfully sought compensation from the
city for damage to his car fatally shot the mayor of Nagasaki. Police
arrested Tetsuya Shiroo, a senior member of Japan’s largest crime
syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, and said he admitted to the attack.

Analysts say the recent shootings are signs that gangsters are getting
desperate in keeping their turf and finding income sources since the
government stepped up anti-gang measures in the 1990s.

“Gangsters used to keep their guns to themselves, largely to protect
their turf,” former National Police Agency official Yutaka Takehana told
public broadcaster NHK. “The recent cases indicate gang groups are
getting desperate for money.”

Handguns are strictly banned 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 smuggled foreign guns into Japan. Of the
53 shootings reported in 2006, two-thirds – 36 – were blamed on
organized crime groups, the National Police Agency says.

Still, public concern about gangster gunfights remains high amid a
widely publicized turf war between Japan’s two largest gangs earlier
this year that ended a yearlong lull in underworld 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.

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !