Japan is reeling after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot while making a speech, in an act of violence almost unheard of in the Asian country.
Abe was speaking in western Tokyo ahead of the country’s general election on Friday, when he was shot by a man wielding what appeared to be a homemade gun. He was rushed to the hospital, but did not survive due to blood loss.
While it is not clear what device the assailant used, reports suggest a projectile was fired by the assailant who is in police custody. Deaths by firearms are exceedingly rare in Japan.
Here’s a chart from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) based at the University of Washington School of Medicine that ranks high-income countries and territories with populations of 10 million or more. Based on 2019 data, it shows the U.S. tops the list of homicides using guns per head of population while Japan is at the bottom:
IHME/Scott Glenn
A broader look at 64 high-income countries and territories, showed the U.S. ranking eighth for homicides by firearm, the highest for any developed country, again based on 2019 data.
IHME
Gun control regulation makes it very difficult to acquire a gun in Japan. As the New York Times explained in a 2018 article, there are more than a dozen steps involved in the process to buy a firearm in the country.
Among other steps, the police will look at any criminal history and interview the applicant who must explain why a gun is needed. The applicant must take a firearm class, pass a written exam only held 3 times a year, and get a note from their doctor ascertaining mental health and lack of drug abuse.
The death of Abe comes as the U.S. reels from a string of mass shootings, most recently in Chicago where a gunman opened fire in an affluent neighborhood killing seven people and injuring more than three dozen. Police revealed they thwarted another July 4 mass shooting in Richmond, Virginia.
Since the start of the year, the U.S. has seen 15 shootings involving the deaths of four or more people, including the Chicago shooting in Highland Park, according to the Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killing database.
In May, a gunman walked into an Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and killed 21 people, including 19 children. Following a recent string of shootings including that of Uvalde, President Joe Biden signed legislation including measures that would make background checks tougher for young gun buyers and keep firearms out of the hands of domestic violence offenders.
