Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested a 30-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of violating the Sword and Firearms Control Law after he imported gun parts from the United States to Japan.
According to police, Yuhei Ito, who lives in Nagoya, imported parts for a firearm from the U.S. to Yokohama by air mail on June 12, Sankei Shimbun reported. The gun components were labeled “engine parts.” Customs agents notified police.
Police said Ito purchased the parts online for $55 and has denied the charge, claiming he did not intend to smuggle them in. He was quoted as saying that he bought the parts to attach them to an airsoft gun for use in playing a survival game.
© Japan Today
28 Comments
sakurasuki
Which parts to be exacts? Is it barrel or eceiver? Is it just fancy accessories that can be attached to airsoft gun?
PTownsend
Good on those who stopped this criminal, regardless why he was getting the parts.
Keep US guns and and gun -insanity. far far away from Japan.
Keep Japan safe from guns and gun fetishists, especially the US variety!
Big Chungus
Pow! Pow! Good times.
Asiaman7
Isn't labeling of goods purchased online done by the seller?
Michael Machida
I use to be for guns in America but after seeing what is happening across almost every state, it's time to re-think the design of gun usage in our constitution. The constitution was created years and years ago with the thought of our government acting like China. However, with all of the protections in place now, I think it's time we put down our guns and go outside and play like we did when we were little kids. Better than killing each other for drugs and money.
nandakandamanda
Catch small fry and make a big deal of it.
Danielsan
Japan needs to amend their Constitution so that all law abiding citizens retain the right to keep and bear arms.
This restriction was imposed on the people by a conquering nation in order to control them.
It is time that the people of Japan were free to defend themselves from those who would do them harm.
jack o helen
That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. Firstly, Japan is safe because it has strict gun laws. Secondly, , Japan has it's fair share of crazy people and if you allow those people access to guns, I can guarantee you that the deaths and injuries they cause will be greatly multiplied.
I totally enjoy walking around Japan freely with the knowledge that there is a 0.0000001% chance that I'll be shot at in Japan, as opposed to America, where the chances are much higher.
PTownsend
Catch any attempt to smuggle gun parts of any kind by anyone and keep it front page news, and maybe some gun-heads might come to understand Japanese authorities and most Japanese people I have ever met want to keep the country from having problems nations like the USA have, especially when there are so many US Americans living in Japan, many of the gun-nut variety. Let the gun-nuts know Japan doesn't want them to bring the problems they have created in their home countries here. Keep it front page news!
Let the police and those few who are licensed and authorized to own guns be the only ones able to possess them.
Why would anyone need a 'soft-air' gun, or according to gun nuts, is owning a soft-air gun one of your basic god-given rights, a 'freedom' as you say.
How many soft-air guns are used by the intellectually limited and just plain angry to shoot cats and birds. What is it with the weak needing weapons, beyond their being weak, angry and intellectually limited.
Gaijinjland
Yeah that's why I'm paranoid going into any supermarket, convenience store, gas station or basically anywhere in public in the US. At least with a crazed Japanese guy with a knife, I might stand a chance. Ordinary civilians should have no right to hold or bear firearms.
WA4TKG
Interesting (and unfortunate) that when Japan lost in WWII, both Cannabis and Firearms were Outlawed
acertainmagicalcat
Weapon control laws have been around since Haitorei during the Meiji period
Slickdrifter
I do allot with airsoft and enjoy it very much with my co-workers. We have a little couse we have set up and do time trails all the time for a bit fun and competition.
We buy them new sell them trade them and its fun to have that with the guys. Matter of fact here in my town we have one the best shops in Japan.
All metal airsoft rifles and pistols are highly desired. But parts at costly in Japan to covert the plastic bits to metal. Its a racket actually buy the makers T.M. is the biggest offender, If I knew the parts he was trying to bring in I could say for sure he is not lying. I bet its a gun frame or an optic. Its one of the two.
Its is not possible to covert and airsoft gun into a real one. And it would be very dangerous!
3D printed guns are more of threat and undetectable as well. In Italy its the preferred weapon to do a hit.
Easily disposable and you do not have throw your Sig Saur in the Piave.
I bet this case gets dismissed.
Paul
Iit is a well known fact that Yakuza and any other organised crime groups in Japan do posses fire arms and use them with knowledge that there is only 0.000000001% chance that any member of the public has one!!!!!
kiwi07
I'm assuming it was something like a rifled barrel for a pistol, which is obviously illegal.
I've never had any problem importing other gun parts for a PCB air rifle (scopes, buttplate, etc). But, I check with customs first, they have a contact office and are very friendly in giving a written reply by email as to if it is OK, and it has always been OK. Likewise, I custom build my own airsoft pistols as a target shooting hobby, and I've never had any issues being allowed to import either individual parts or conversion kits.
Sven Asai
I guess if you really need one you can surely buy one, let’s say at evening in a small harbor village in the north or so. Others are skilled enough and don’t order ‘engine parts’ in the US, but locally at a little metal parts fabrication, or produce them even themselves in their garage, basement, hobby attic etc., samples or parts for testing you could even legally and openly produce at those DIY centers with 3D-printer resources to rent for some time. It’s not possible to make it completely impossible. lol
Numan
Slickdrifter is correct. It is possible that the guy was trying to upgrade his airsoft gun with more realistic parts for gameplay. Realistic airsoft guns and gear is more coveted than the plastic toy like guns. The same is true for the uniforms and other nonlethal gear used in the military. The more realistic the better. The war games are becoming sophisticated. There are also airsoft bombs, smoke grenades and railguns. It could be considered larping by some.
Unless we know the gun part, no one can be confident of the man's intent. It could be a serious situation. Alternatively, this could just be a situation blown out of proportion by the police to get some positive attention and easily thrown out of court later.
nandakandamanda
If the guy really wanted a serious hand gun there are ways and means, for example with Russian ships and crew.
Perhaps this was one of three shipments from the USA to complete a single gun, but why go to the trouble? The ‘engine parts’ label was probably at his request. I’m betting he got the idea from someone here who was successful and bragged about it.
kiwi07
According to the Japanese news and accompanying pictures, it was a resin pistol body.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/473d4d3b92fa6c3d88b4381a75d3f185ae188e8d
Hervé L'Eisa
Some posters seem to be uninformed about what airsoft actually is. They are BB guns made mostly of plastic, for shooting plastic 6mm BBs. Some of the components are made of metal, but are incapable of firing and actual ammunition. There are two grades: one for kids, one for adults. The models (they are model guns) for adults use compressed gas as a propellant.
You've seen these used extensively in Hollywood films and dramas, and are also used for training purposes. A major producer is Tokyo Marui.
This individual seems to have inadvertently ordered a prohibited part (resin body of an actual firearm).
nandakandamanda
Sounds like customs being anal, over-reacting just to keep their butts safe.
GdTokyo
Um, there were 929 murders in the entire country last year out of a population of around 126 million and change. That equates to homicide rate of 13.5 homicides per 100k people. Hardly the makings of a crime wave.
By way of comparison, 20,000 people died from guns in the United States last year alone.
So, no. We don't need less restrictive gun laws here.
And I am a gun owner in America for full disclosure.
ShinkansenCaboose
If there is a packing list on the outside that lists content then the seller is to blame, unless he had it mailed to a friend stateside and then the friend mailed it.
Ax heads and hammers are legally allowed to be imported.
If you try to take your walking stick that you bought at the top of Mt. Fuji and board a plane it will be taken away as a weapon. Mine was told to me that it was a weapon.