The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by what can only be described as a lunatic with a grudge has drawn the attention of both supporters of gun control in the United States and of those of us who favor gun rights, given its extraordinary features, and while some reactions are simply predictable talking points best left on the photocopier, there are some lessons worth noticing here.
The first item is the fact that assassinations are rare in Japan. This is increasingly true globally as leaders now enjoy the protection of professional security officers who not only place themselves between identified attackers and their principal, but who also close as many avenues to attack as they can find and monitor unhinged individuals who might be laying plans. But Japan is also ranked as the safest nation in the world in terms of homicide with a rate of 0.19 per hundred thousand per annum.
This is often attributed to the country’s strict gun laws, but those restrictions, while onerous—extensive background checks, membership in a relevant sporting association, storage requirements, and explanations of one’s personal need for a firearm—are not especially different from the laws in the United Kingdom (1.22 homicides per 100,000), Russia (7.00 per 100,000), or Mexico (25.30 per 100,000). The only major distinction in the latter two is that approved persons (read, those who have paid the right bribes) can be licensed to carry for self-defense.
By contrast, at various times, Japanese people have been far more likely to kill themselves than to be killed by someone else. Their suicide rate peaked in the late 90s at 34.7 per hundred thousand, and as of 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, remained above that of the United States with 14.21 per 100,000 as compared with 11.67.
The obvious way of explaining these disparities—cultural differences—may be the right way to go about things, though with the caveat that attributing something to culture and leaving it at that without any digging into personal motivations and individual characters and into the full diversity, depth, and history of the cultures we wish to label as causal is all too easy. Having said that, however, it is necessary to observe that in Japanese culture, social conformity, saving face for all parties involved, and general harmony are held in high esteem, while in the western world, individual achievement and status, honor that one evaluates personally and does not always require agreement from others, and individuality are among our ideals. And while a murderer may be forgiven in time, according to the teachings of the Christian religion, those who kill themselves do not have that benefit. There is also the reality that in Japan, at least until recently, lifetime employment and a more equitable distribution of wealth have been the norms during the time that the country has participated in the global economy.
Is that enough of an answer? I suspect that it goes a long way, but probably not far enough. It is worth adding that Japan suffered a radical reversal in developing imperial ambitions and then in suffering a comprehensive defeat in the Second World War. Vietnam was a blow to America’s self-identity, and Iraq and Afghanistan have only contributed to this, but we retain the attitude of a nation that has never been conquered at home with a population that still in large numbers looks back to romantic notions of Manifest Destiny in feeling who we are.
I would suggest as a result that were the United States to adopt the weapons laws of Japan—even blades are strictly regulated, despite the country’s long traditions of swords—we would still be more violent, though as I will often say, choosing to get in line with the rest of the developed world when it comes to education, income equality, healthcare, and general welfare would do a lot to ameliorate this, perhaps even to the point of bringing our rates of homicide and other crimes of physical force down to those that are to be found in such nations as we wish to count as our peers. I meet with opposition from the right wing on this suggestion—and from Democrats as well, but I repeat myself with regard to the political spectrum—and since my proposals for making everyone’s life better do not include burdensome new laws on private arms, the political center cannot stop complaining. What works rarely appeals to those whose careers depend on problems to harangue the public over during campaigns.
But the final lesson on comparing cultures is the observation that it is a global fact that a sufficiently motivated killer will find a way to make killing possible. The assassination of Shinzo Abe was performed with a homemade firearm, one of several that the killer had constructed, along with explosives that the police found in his home. The reports that I have seen regarding the killer say that he had no criminal record and was motivated by a belief that Abe had encouraged the spread of the Unification Church (the Moonies) in Japan, an organization that the killer blames for his mother’s bankruptcy. More may come out as the investigation continues, but for the moment, this act appears to be of a type that is the hardest to prevent, a madman who successfully conceals his insanity until unleashing it in a spectacular crime.
The only thing that any of us can do against that is to live such lives as to make our deaths something that good people will regret.
I'm not sure you can classify him as mad. Revenge is a motive understandable to all, I wouldn't call it extreme, even if the actions resulting might be.
I'm not sure that introducing similar programs for education, healthcare, etc would make much difference. It's my understanding of the data that if you remove the inner city violence that blights primarily low-income and poverty-line black Americans, the U.S. homicide rate plunges to levels comparable to European nations.
In other words, when white America is compared to white Europe (which is most all of Europe, despite their boasts of "multiculturalism") then the numbers really don't look so different. This should be motivation to finally provide black families and communities with the support and resources they desperately need, but it'll be ignored in favor of more crowing about gun control.