Gun violence remains extremely rare in Japan<\/a>, despite the killing of ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAccording to Japanese news agency Kyodo, police received a call at around 16:25 (07:25 GMT) about a man who had chased and then stabbed a woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An eyewitness working in a nearby field told Kyodo that the man’s attack on his first victim had been carried out with a blade around 30cm (1ft) long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His motive is not clear. When the witness asked the suspect why he had stabbed the woman, he is said to have replied: “I killed her because I wanted to.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Aoki – who was reportedly wearing a camouflage uniform, a hat, sunglasses and a mask – then allegedly shot police officers who responded to the emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not immediately clear how the fourth person – described as an elderly woman – had died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Aoki later barricaded himself for hours inside his father’s home in a quiet residential area of Nakano city. His father, Masamichi Aoki, is the speaker of Nakano city’s assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Footage from Japanese broadcaster NHK showed police vehicles and ambulances near the home. Police officers wearing body armour and carrying shields formed a 300m (328 yards) exclusion zone around the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The suspect later stepped out of the house and was detained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Residents were urged to stay at home via email announcements and on the neighbourhood loudspeaker, while police also went door to door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later in the evening, local media aired footage of gunshots being heard just after 20:00 local time (11:00 GMT) on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some residents had to spend the night elsewhere, while the local school was set to close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But after the arrest, people were told they could go about their day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A man in his 50s told NHK: “It’s sad something like this happened in my neighbourhood. I could not sleep all night.”<\/p>\n\n\n\nAbe was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister and his death profoundly shocked a country where handguns are banned and incidents of political violence are almost unheard of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2014, there were just six incidents of gun deaths in Japan, compared with 33,599 in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People have to undergo a strict exam and mental health tests in order to buy a gun. Even then, only shotguns and air rifles are allowed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC News: A man has been arrested after four people were killed in a rare shooting and stabbing attack in Japan. The alleged assailant stabbed a woman and shot two policemen with a hunting rifle in Nagano prefecture. A fourth death was later confirmed. Police have named the suspect as Masanori Aoki, the 31-year-old son of a local politician. Gun violence remains extremely rare in Japan, despite the killing of ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July last year. According to Japanese news agency Kyodo, police received a call at around 16:25 (07:25 GMT) about a man who had chased and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32383,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32381\/revisions\/32383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}