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This article is a list of mass shootings in Japan. Mass shootings are firearm-related violence with at least four casualties. Excluded are shootings and massacres associated with the Imperial Japanese Army, acts of war and other colonial conflicts.
The data includes casualties of perpetrators, including self-inflicted gunshot or shooting of a perpetrator by police. The treatment of perpetrator casualties is at variance to some but not all definitions of a mass shooting used in the United States. The inclusion of injured victims in the data is also at variance with some of the US definitions that only include dead victims. However, the above treatment is consistent with that used in other Wikipedia lists of mass shootings by country.
Date | Location | Dead | Injured | Total | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
25–26 May 2023 | Nakano, Nagano Prefecture | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2023 Nagano attack: A man killed four people in a shooting and stabbing attack. [1] [2] |
30 August 2016 | Wakayama, Wakayama Prefecture | 2 [n 1] | 3 | 5 | A construction employee convicted of drug offenses opened fire at a workplace meeting on the day his jailing was scheduled, killing one person and wounding three others. The gunman killed himself the following day after barricading himself in a building. [3] |
12 January 2010 | Habikino, Osaka Prefecture | 4 [n 1] | 0 | 4 | 2010 Habikino shooting: A man shot and killed three people at a bar, including the gunman's mother-in-law, before he committed suicide. [4] [5] |
6 November 2009 | Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture | 1 [n 1] | 3 | 4 | A Yakuza member shot and wounded three men during a discussion before hiding in a building and fatally shooting himself. [6] |
14 December 2007 | Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture | 3 [n 1] | 6 | 9 | 2007 Sasebo shooting: A man shot and killed two people and wounded six others at a gym before he committed suicide at a nearby Catholic church. [7] [8] [9] [10] |
17–18 May 2007 | Nagakute, Aichi | 1 | 3 | 4 | Nagakute hostage incident: A man took his ex-wife hostage in a siege that lasted 29 hours and resulted in the death of a SAT member of the Aichi Prefectural Police, as well as injuries to another officer, his ex-wife, and child. [11] [12] [13] |
Date | Location | Dead | Injured | Total | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
27 February 1984 | Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi Prefecture | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1984 JSDF Yamaguchi training ground shooting incident: A Ground Self-Defense Force corporal shot four other soldiers during a training exercise, fatally wounding one. He was arrested five hours later. [14] |
31 January 1980 | Kumano, Mie Prefecture | 8 [n 1] [n 2] | 3 | 11 | A farmer shot his two sisters, brother, and brother-in-law to death with a shotgun after killing his mother and two children with an axe. The gunman also wounded his wife and two neighbors before committing suicide. [15] |
26 January 1979 | Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka | 4 | 6 | 11 | Mitsubishi Bank hostage incident: A multiple hostage bank robbery. |
6 November 1975 | Aki, Kōchi, Japan | 6 | 2 | 8 | 1975 Aki shooting: A man shot and killed six neighbours and injurded two other neighbours. [16] |
29 July 1965 | Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture and Shibuya, Tokyo | 1 | 17 | 18 | Zama and Shibuya shootings: A double spree shootings in which a man shot and killed one police officer and injured other 17 people. [17] |
21 May 1938 | Kamo, Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture | 31 [n 1] | 3 | 34 | Tsuyama massacre: A man killed 30 people, [18] including his grandmother, with a Browning shotgun, katana, and axe, and seriously injured three others before killing himself with the shotgun in a spree killing. He was motivated by revenge for sexual and social rejection. It is the deadliest shooting by a lone gunman in Japanese history. |
May 1928 | Kobe | 7-12 [n 1] | 0 | 7-12 | Kobe shooting: Seven or Eleven Japanese were shot and killed by a Chinese man in Kobe in a revenge attack for the 1928 Jinan incident. He later committed suicide |
Date | Location | Dead | Injured | Total | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
25 May 1893 | Chihayaakasaka, Minamikawachi District, Osaka Prefecture | 13 [n 1] | 0 | 13 | Kawachi Jūningiri : Two spree killers who killed eleven people, including an infant. The roots of the killings were both emotional and financial. They both committed suicide after the murders. |