Tokyo bans large knife sales to under 18s

Tokyo bans large knife sales to under 18s
Tokyo authorities ban the sale of large knives to people under the age of 18, three months after seven people were knifed to death on a busy street in the city's Akihabara district.


The attack on June 8 by Tomohiro Kato, which led to a further 10 people being injured, was followed by a spate of copycat incidents and internet threats.

Kato, 25, told police that he rammed into pedestrians in a two-ton truck and randomly attacked passersby because he was "tired of life."

In the following 16 days, police across the country took action against 17 individuals who posted claims on the internet that they were planning to commit mass murder.

"I will commit a historic mass-murder at a train station in Kyushu," read one e-mail message, while another threatened to, "Blow up a place close to the east exit of Yokohama Station," police said.

"The police have no option but to take action," national Public Safety Commission Chairman Shinya Izumi said. "Otherwise, they will be unable to protect those that need to be protected.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/2711359/Tokyo-bans-large-knife-sales-to-under-18s.html

"I was whittling with that machete officer, honest!"

If they have to. Psychos will be psychos. Japan has the best shot of any first-world nation to outlaw firearms, because they're an island nation capable of controlling imports and because they do not have a large domestic firearms industry.

But knives? Hell, the Japanese have been making the best blades for close to a thousand years. The guys who would otherwise be making incomparable samurai swords are now making a killing selling chef's knives.

So in short, Japan now faces the exact same problem America faces: a nation armed to the teeth with weapons which stay deadly indefinitely if cared for and constantly restocked by a domestic industry.