Japan set for meeting on gun control

Tokyo, Apr 20: Japan is set to hold a task force meeting on gun control next week after the mayor of the southern city of Nagasaki was fatally shot by a suspected gangster on Tuesday.

Japan already has strict gun control laws, but the shooting of Itcho Ito has prompted some, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to call for even tighter supervision.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said an annual task force meeting on gun policy would be held on Wednesday.

''(The shooting) was a challenge to democracy,'' he told a news conference on Friday, referring to concerns that Ito's death would stifle freedom of speech in political campaigns.

''The Abe administration takes this seriously and we want to respond,'' he said, without going into details on what measures would be discussed.

A newspaper reported after the shooting that the government and ruling coalition parties would speed up efforts to clamp down on guns, aiming to submit a bill to parliament to revise gun control legislation by the end of the current session on June 23.

Work had already been under way to revise the law but Ito's death has highlighted the urgent need for tighter measures, the paper added.

Measures being considered include requiring that guns be labelled by authorities as they are imported, which could help police track down smuggled firearms from abroad.

Firearms in Japan are mostly in the hands of hunters or ''yakuza'' gangsters, and shootings are rare.

Gun-related crime has also been on the decline, with the number of shootings falling to a record-low 53 last year.

Of those, 36 are thought to have involved yakuza. Only two resulted in deaths.

Reuters