Japan needs comprehensive samurai sword legislation – IOTW Report

Japan needs comprehensive samurai sword legislation

3 dead after samurai sword attack at Tokyo shrine.

Dec. 8 (UPI) — Three people died at a Japanese Shinto shrine, in which a man used knives and a ceremonial samurai sword to kill two women and then himself, police said Friday.

Officials said Nagako Tomoika, 58, head priestess of the Tomoika Hachimangu shrine in Tokyo’s Koto district, was stabbed in an ambush Thursday by her brother, Shigenaga Tomoika.

Police say the 56-year-old attacker then stabbed his wife before killing himself with the sword.

People visit Tomioka Hachimangu shrine in Tokyo on Friday, the day after police say three people were killed in a stabbing attack.

Nagako Tomoika’s unidentified driver was injured, but survived, Tokyo Metropolitan Police said.

Authorities said security footage shows Shigenaga Tomoika and his wife hid in a nearby building and awaited the head priestesses’ arrival. After she left her car, she was slashed with the 28-inch-long sword.  more here

SNIP: Not to make light of the situation, but do you think Japan would do something as insane as banning traditional swords? If this happened here, some of our congresscritters would jump at that chance.

6 Comments on Japan needs comprehensive samurai sword legislation

  1. Significant laws on this already. Everything BUT old blades are banned.

    Have a friend retiring there next week and he just shipped his collection back home to Texas.

    I like my Blades from traditionalarcheryandbows. Com

    Made in Missouri and goddamn good!👍

  2. Sounds like the Japanese are watching too much American television. lol. That would be a shame if they confiscated those swords.

    OK, I read ‘traditional eyebrows.com”. I need to go to bed. lol

  3. Katana replicas are given out like candy to children and adults throughout the US as trophies by martial arts clubs. Cosplayers, larpers (anachronerds) and reenactors will often carry both very sharp and blunt swords. Most malls will have at least one store where swords can be purchased. It is difficult to know, just by looking, whether a metal blade is blunt or sharp. A decorative metal blade can be sharpened and a “real” blade can be blunted.

    Just as with guns, the sword didn’t kill those women, the crazy man did.

    Just as with guns, if it looks real, law enforcement and the public will assume it is real. Carrying a sword in public will raise suspicion and you may be stopped and questioned by law enforcement. Threatening or lunging at someone, especially law enforcement, with a “fake” sword can get you shot — justifiably.

    A young, mentally disabled black man was shot and killed a couple of years ago here in Utah for threatening and lunging at officers with a cosplay sword then running away after being ordered to stop. He was shot in the back seven times.

    The officers were correct in their actions. They did not shoot him to save themselves or as revenge for lunging at them. They showed great restraint. He was shot when he ran from them and toward shoppers.

    The State of Utah’s laws regarding blades (local laws may vary) allow an unrestricted person to possess, and carry, concealed or open, any blade of any size. The young man would have been considered a restricted person.

    I don’t know why the city agreed to pay the parents nearly a million dollars of settlement money (which they later sued their lawyers for accepting).

    People with swords and knives (or any weapon) need to be prudent in public. Parents need to tell their children to not treat realistic looking toy/replica/decorative weapons like toys, especially in public, or at least make sure they cannot take them out in public.

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