The Tochigi Prefectural Government received a court order Thursday to pay 47 million yen in damages to two families for giving a gun permit to a man who shot their relatives, one fatally.
Presiding Judge Setsuo Fukushima of the Utsunomiya District Court said giving the gun license to the man was illegal because the shooting had been "predictable," especially by police officers who had intervened in disputes between the two female victims and the man, who were neighbors.
The families had sought a combined 77 million yen in damages from Tochigi Prefecture, the chairman of the prefectural public safety commission and prefectural police officers.