The National Police Agency will ask lawmakers to ban air guns that have been retooled to give them killing power, NPA officials said Sunday.
The agency will submit a bill to revise the firearm control law to the Diet during the current session under which a violator would face up to one year in prison or a maximum fine of 300,000 yen, the officials said.
According to the agency, 165 injury and assault cases involving air guns have been reported since 2003.
An air gun is a toy that operates by means of compressed air and normally fires plastic pellets, but installing a powerful spring or enhancing the air pressure can enable it to shoot metal rounds. Manuals on how to achieve this as well as modified air guns are available on the Internet.
There are an estimated 1 million air gun enthusiasts in Japan and more than 4 million air guns in circulation, according to the NPA.