The assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a stump speech on Friday has highlighted the difficulty of preventing shooting incidents even in a country like Japan, where gun control is strict compared with other nations such as the United States.
A number of shooting crimes have occurred in Japan in recent years, including those targeting politicians, and experts have pointed to new technology such as 3D printers that can produce homemade guns as a factor thwarting law enforcement efforts to crack down on all firearms.
Police departments in Japan use specialized sections to enforce the nation's strict gun control laws while soliciting information from citizens to help track down illegal guns as part of an overall effort aimed at preventing shootings.
In 2007, then-Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito was shot to death by a senior member of a crime syndicate during an election campaign.
Abe was also delivering a stump speech when he was shot by a 41-year-old man with a homemade gun in the city of Nara. He was pronounced dead hours later.
Gun violence has been seen in numerous feuds among organized crime groups.
Although it is difficult for unlicensed citizens to obtain firearms, progress in technology and the amount of information available online are believed to have played a role increasing illegal possession.
In 2014, a former university staff member was arrested on suspicion of illegally possessing a gun made using a 3D printer. In 2018, police in Aichi Prefecture arrested a teenage boy for allegedly manufacturing a handgun and explosive devices at his home.
Nobuo Komiya, a professor of criminology at Rissho University, indicated it is virtually impossible to eradicate gun violence.
"There is no countermeasure except law enforcement authorities keeping a close tab on whether there are people misusing new technology," he said.