Shootings, when they occur, typically involve “yakuza” gangsters using illegal weapons. In 2021, there were 10 shooting incidents, eight involving gangsters, according to police data. One person was killed and four wounded.

Japan has had mass killings, but they usually have not involved guns.

In 2016, 19 residents of a facility for mentally disabled people were murdered in their beds by a knife-wielding assailant, while in 2019 34 people were killed in an arson attack on an animation studio.

Attacks on politicians, though, are unusual. There have been only a handful in the last half century, most notably in 2007 when the mayor of Nagasaki was shot and killed by a gangster – an incident that resulted in still further tightening of gun regulations.