Gun violence

A remarkable aspect of the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe (apart from the fact that it’s Abe, Japan’s longest serving PM) is the global shock at the deadly gun violence.

The country is the envy of the world in terms of public safety. Visitors to Japan surely remember Nara, the site of the attack, mainly for its park that’s a sanctuary for adorably friendly deer, symbols of the peace and closeness to nature associated with the city.

Japan is no stranger to assassinations and armed violence, but bladed weapons are favored. I see this as a manifestation of a culture where people readily take responsibility for their actions; getting caught after carrying out a knife attack has to be close to 100 percent.

A knife was used in the assassination attempt on Abe’s maternal grandfather, then Japanese prime minister Nobusuke Kishi, on July 14, 1960. He survived six stab wounds.

The first Japanese PM to be murdered, Takashi Hara, was stabbed at Tokyo Station in November 1921.

Two PMs were killed with guns: Tsuyoshi Inukai on May 15, 1932, and Osachi Hamaguchi, who succumbed nine months after he was shot on Nov. 14, 1930.

But these were before World War II. Japan has since transformed spectacularly from a wartime aggressor to a society associated with discipline, politeness, peace and order and the rule of law.

Among the reasons for the non-violence have to be the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The horrific impact of the bombings can make one foreswear violence for good.

While Japan still has the yakuza or crime gangs, the crime rate is enviably low, whether against persons or property. Of 21 arrests for gun use in 2020, 12 were yakuza-related.

In 2018 when I lost my Apple cell phone in a ski resort with high occupancy in picturesque Hokkaido, for example, it was turned over to the guy in charge of the public area where I lost it. The phone was there, waiting to be claimed, over two hours later when I finally noticed its loss.

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Japan of course has a long history of deadly violence associated with its samurai or feudal warrior culture. But there is the other aspect of the culture that we associate with peace, with communion with nature and Zen-like serenity.

Post-war Japan is also remarkable for its near-zero tolerance for gun ownership (and swords). Only military and police officers are allowed to carry guns, and only while on duty. Civilians may own shotguns and airguns for hunting or sport, but they must belong to a hunting or shooting club. The requirements for ownership and use are so stringent, with even relatives of the applicant included in background checks.

The annual death rate in Japan from gun violence rarely surpasses 10; in 2016, only two such deaths were recorded. In 2007, the mayor of Nagasaki city was fatally shot in the back by a yakuza gangster.

You know where this article is headed: will the Philippines ever see that level of peace and order?

Our society is similar to that of the US. Although the right to bear arms is not enshrined, as in the US, under our Constitution, gun ownership is widespread in our country. Little wonder that the two countries both have high homicide / murder rates.

Mass killings carried out by mentally unhinged individuals, however, such as the attacks in US schools by troubled students, are rare in our country. I attribute this to the strong social support networks in our society – our extended family system and neighborliness.

But we have an inordinate number of killings linked to politics, insurgency and crime. From the advent of our republic, when Emilio Aguinaldo ordered the execution of his rival for the revolutionary leadership, Andres Bonifacio, killings have become the go-to mode for permanently eliminating political rivals, especially during election season.

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The elder Ferdinand Marcos himself was convicted of assassinating, in 1935 when he was just 18 and a university student, his father Mariano’s victorious rival for a National Assembly seat, Julio Nalundasan, using a rifle belonging to the University of the Philippines’ rifle team captain.

Marcos defended himself and his uncle, Quirino Lizardo, before the Supreme Court. SC Justice Jose P. Laurel, who was himself indicted for attempted homicide in a fight over a girl when he was 18 but cleared, read Marcos’ acquittal in 1940. Laurel became the country’s president during the Japanese wartime occupation.

An attack like the one on Shinzo Abe would be shocking but not unique in our country, except for the home-made lethal weapon used, and the fact that the assailant must have been expecting to be caught.

Data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s International Homicide Statistics in 2018 showed the Philippines topping the list of countries in our part of Asia in terms of homicides/murders per 100,000 population.

In that database, the Philippines recorded 6.46 homicides / murders per 100,000 population. This declined in 2019 to 4.4. To compare, El Salvador had the highest killing rate worldwide in 2018, with 52.02; Afghanistan recorded 6.66.

Among the Asian countries in the Pacific Rim whose latest available crime data was for 2018, South Korea recorded 0.60 (from 2018 to 2020); China, 0.53; Japan 0.26, and Singapore, 0.16.

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In 2020, Hong Kong and Macau both registered 0.3. Latest statistics for our other neighbors differed in the available date. Except for conflict-torn Myanmar, however, which recorded 2.26 killings per 100,000 population in 2016, I don’t think there has been significant changes in the homicide rates of the others, all of which were lower than ours.

Timor-Leste registered 4.10 in 2015; Thailand in 2017 recorded 2.58; Malaysia, 2.13 in 2013; Cambodia, 1.84 in 2011; Vietnam, 1.53 in 2011; Taiwan, 0.8 in 2015; Brunei, 0.49 in 2013, and Indonesia 0.43 in 2017.

In 2020, the US recorded 6.3 killings per 100,000 population.

The circumstances in our country are of course different. Japan doesn’t have an armed communist insurgency and armed Islamic extremists, against whom civilians cite the need for self-protection with their own guns. State security forces are allowed to carry guns even while off-duty in our country. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for lawmen themselves to pose a threat to public safety.

Anyone can invoke a perceived personal threat, whether real or imagined, to own a gun. Many of the threats are not entirely without basis. And it’s doubtful that we’ll ever experience the same level of peace and order in post-war Japan within this generation.