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Police in Nakama City, Fukuoka Prefecture, have arrested a 75-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder after he attacked an assemblyman with a gun-like object on Monday.
According to police, the incident occurred at around 10:30 a.m. on Monday. Fuji TV reported that Nakama City assemblyman Kazuhiko Yonemitsu, 74, was attacked in the underground parking lot of Nakama City Hall and struck in the face and head with a gun-like object. Police said he sustained light injuries.
Police arrested Masao Okamoto at the scene of the crime, and said he is currently refusing to offer any explanation or motive for his action.
© Japan Today
11 Comments
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Kobe White Bar Owner
gun-like object???
some14some
Neither hommono (genuine gun) nor hamono (an edged tool, knife)... (!)
Kobe White Bar Owner
And how is the attempted murder when "Police said he sustained light injuries".
nandakandamanda
jpn_guy, spot on. This translation problem can be diplomatically really frustrating; often you have to back down out of 'respect' even though you may actually be right at least 5 times out of ten.
In the above situation, no-one wants to commit on what the object was although it probably looked like a gun. It could have been a model gun, a modified model gun, a real gun or a home-made gun, all very very differently treated under sometimes harsh Japanese law.
Something resembling a gun? A possible gun? A suspected gun?
Abhorsenaube
Maybe it was the old man's cellphone in one of those cases that resembles a gun? who knows, I am curious to know the motive behind the attack though, if it was random or politically charged. I'd imagine it would have to be something pretty big to get a 75 year old man worked up like that. Or the attacker is a not in his right mind.
TheGodfather
"'gun-like object' will be translation of 拳銃のようなもの"
ような is translated as "seems like" and this puts the emphasis on what the witness thought they saw. The object is what it is and doesn't change. But this phrase means that the witness is saying "he had what I thought was a gun"
And probably it was a gun... hence the attempted murder charge!!
PS - You can't translate between languages. You need to do a re-write in the other language so that it seems like a native wrote it... ;-)
TheGodfather
"You can't translate between languages"
Japanese people in England are fond of saying "backside" instead of "reverse side" when referring to something. When I try to tell them that "backside" means someone's buttocks and it never means "reverse side" they still don't get it...
So I just try not to make the same mistake when speaking Japanese!!... :-)
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/backside
commanteer
Makes no sense. If there wasn't a gun, why charge the guy with attempted murder?
If there was a gun, the normal thing to do when attempting murder is to shoot the gun, not club your target about the head with it.
TheGodfather
Maybe he bought the gun but couldn't afford any bullets.. ;-)