The number of shooting-related crimes to occur this year stood at 25 as of April 24 — nearly double the figure for the same period last year, a National Police Agency (NPA) report has shown.

Five people died in the shootings. Last year just 13 shooting-related crimes were reported during the same period, with only one victim dying.

In response to the rise in such crimes, the government on Wednesday held a meeting of its gun countermeasure promotion headquarters, and agreed on steps for the 2007 fiscal year.

The committee’s proposals include strengthening a system to expose use of guns, and building closer cooperation with organizations to control the weapons; putting more effort in investigating gun crimes; promoting measures to stop gun smuggling; finding secretly possessed weapons; promoting international cooperation to fight crimes; and securing residents’ understanding of measures.

The government’s gun countermeasure promotion headquarters was established in 1995. Each year it decides on measures government ministries should take to control weapons.

NPA officials said that 16 of the 25 crimes involving shootings that have occurred this year were yakuza-related. In one incident, a high-ranking member of the Sumiyoshi-kai crime syndicate was gunned down on a road in Tokyo’s Minato-ku in February. This month, a gangster fatally shot Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito in front of his election campaign office, and in another incident an armed gangster holed himself up in his apartment in the Tokyo city of Machida.

On April 20, the NPA ordered police across the nation to crack down on gun use connected to gangs.

“The dangerousness of armed gangs is vividly behind the large number of incidents this year,” an NPA representative said. (Mainichi)

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