A man in his 40s was shot after an argument turned violent among four or five men in a pub in Tochigi City, Tochigi Prefecture, early Sunday morning.
Police said the victim is in a serious condition but is expected to recover.
According to police, a woman called 119 at around 2:30 a.m. and said that a male friend had been shot. Police rushed to the pub and found the man collapsed with a bullet wound to the stomach.
The woman said the victim had gotten involved in an argument with a group of men and that one of them, whom she described as being in his late 40s or early 50s, had pulled a gun and fired it at her friend.
The group fled the pub right after the shooting.
© Japan Today
25 Comments
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Ex_Res
No it's not.
Unfortuntly, yes it is.
Just because it doesn't make the news does not mean it does not happen. It is purposely kept out of the news.
Correct.
yoshisan88
If it was a sawn-off shotgun then it would be much easier to conceal it. However, just like other said it was likely to be a handgun.
mph-1212
Shotgun perhaps...……….not good!
Unless the man left and came back with it, I highly doubt he used a shotgun. Kind of a large weapon to be slinging around in public without someone saying something.
WilliB
....like the preferred footware being geta, and the preferred mode of transportation walking? Somebody is watching too many movies.
yoshisan88
I would imagine the weapons of choice in the fight of 2 rival Yakuza gangs are Katanas. Shame on the one who pull out a gun! Where is your pride?
thepersoniamnow
Disillusioned
Lol, thanks for the local explanation man. Now I understand my own nation better
Toasted Heretic
Oh yeah, I forgot. The late night bikers going round and round. That's annoying.
Hervé L'Eisa
Must have been one of those self-aware, self-aiming, and self-firing automatic assault pistolas!
Toasted Heretic
For sure. I don't think anyone would deny that violent crime happens in Japan. I think m'learned colleagues are debating the level and occurrence of violence.
I certainly feel safer walking down the streets at night, than I did in previous places of residence and that includes my home country. I lost count of how many times I had a knife pulled on me by some random.
As for pub fracas, weekend chucking out time could be so vicious that I stopped going.
The only fracas/misbehaviour I've witnessed in Japan (so far) is blokes peeing in street corners and drunken young servicemen in Naha.
Disillusioned
Perhaps rival gang violence in not common in your town, but it is very common in many prefectures. Saitama, Chiba and Ibaraki regularly have gang wars. Just because it doesn't make the news does not mean it does not happen. It is purposely kept out of the news.
kurisupisu
The level of gun violence and knife crime is very low compared to the west but that doesn’t preclude the fact that there is violence here involving knives and guns.
Toasted Heretic
Scary but exceedingly rare.
Strangerland
No it's not.
Belrick
It's a lot more common than you think.
WilliB
No. Gangsters have handguns here, this sort of thing is reported occasionally. And shotguns are not usually involved in bar brawls...
sir_bentley28
There are so many key points that have been left out. Disillusioned said exactly what I wanted to say. If it were a 'gaikokujin" the J-Media would have even went as far as to post their job, when they came to Japan and what they had to drink at the bar. Names, the bar location, more quotes from witnesses could even shed light on this case as to who the perps were.
Madden
Hah, shoot the guy and then run away? Real tough guys there, everyone's such a badass with a gun until it's time to actually own up for it and then they become the biggest cowards around!
Strangerland
Yes it is.
Disillusioned
But you can bet that if a foreigner was involved their name and nationality would be in the headline.
Yes, somebody getting shot is rare. However, rival gang violence is not rare in Japan.
oldman_13
So much for gun control in Japan.
Alfie Noakes
Rival gangs of local yakuza/chimpira, according to last night's TV news. Why is this key fact omitted from the story here?
GW
While I know how a shotgun is compared to a gun firing bullets my thinking was with handguns being rare it might be a shotgun, especially being rural.....anyway the guy recovers ok
Chip Star
A shotgun blast that only injured the stomach would have to come from such a close distance that it would have killed the victim.
GW
Shotgun perhaps...……….not good!
thepersoniamnow
Wow! In Japan this is very rare