A recruit of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (the military body tasked with defending the country’s security) he shot to three soldiers during a training exercise, killing two. Corps officials said the incident occurred around 9 am at a training center in Gifu, central Japan. The dead soldiers were 52 and 25 years old; a third of them, also aged 25, was injured. A Japanese government spokesman said the person suspected of shooting was detained: the Japan Times writes who is 18 and has been charged with attempted murder. According to the investigators, who are questioning her, she admitted to shooting. The Self-Defense Forces – the country does not have an army but a body with the sole task of defending the national territory from possible external attacks or invasions and which cannot be used in armed missions abroad – have made it known that the case will be open an investigation.
Japan is one of the countries with the lowest gun prevalence and firearm homicide rates in the world thanks to extremely strict laws, which have guaranteed the country an exceptional level of safety. Recently, however, some very serious episodes have brought the attention of the Japanese media back to the issue of the use of weapons: in July 2022 former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was killed in an attack while he was giving a public speech near Kyoto; In April, however, current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was rescued during a rally after a person threw what appeared to be a rudimentary explosive device at him. The last firearms incident involving members of the Self-Defense Forces was in 1984, when a 21-year-old began shooting during training in the city of Yamaguchi, wounding four soldiers, one of whom later died.
– Read also: Japan’s largest military reform since the war