Should Japanese police use their guns?

I think Helical has it pretty well covered. There is almost a “national allergy” to the cops using force. I have asked policemen about this, and they said part of it is that the excesses of the police and kenpeitai during the war have so soured the public on the idea of force wielded by the authorities that it becomes difficult for the police to use it now. Various left-of-center “civic groups” and political parties raise such a fuss whenever the police use force that, unfortunately, the cops’ first thought often becomes “protect yourselves from claims of brutality” rather than “bring the situation to an end quickly”. And if there is any question of whether the perpetrator is a minor or not – forget about it. It doesn’t matter what the kid is doing, if the cops injure him/her at all in the arrest process, all hell breaks loose.

The one exception seems to be the SAT or SIT units (anti-terror/SWAT teams). They are very, very good at what they do and don’t seem to be afraid to put their lives on the line to take down a criminal when they are called upon to do so. The problem is, they aren’t called very often, or when they are they are subservient to “normal” cops who are worried about CYA. SIT can only be called in by the prefectural police office, wheras IIRC SAT can only be called in by the National Police Agency. By the time either unit gets the call, it usually means things have already gone bad. But there again – if you create a system so these special units can be activated quicker, you get people screaming about “heavy-handed” police tactics.

The only point people haven’t thought of yet: isn’t Akihabara jam packed on Sundays?!

Its not as easy as simply firing a gun and killing the guy. First they have to isolate him from the crowds and then fire. I don’t think anyone blaming the Japanese police has the first clue of how cops handle these things in their home countries in the first place.

You’re right, fh. Prevention would be the best way approach this and prevention should almost certainly include adding more mental health care options to what’s covered by national health insurance. Let people get the help they need, without that necessarily being drugs and encouragement to buck up, when they need it, not just when they need serious intervention. Who knows what could be avoided if people like Kato and Kanagawa (the Tsuchiura killer) hadn’t been stuck stewing in despression and frustration with no realistic or readily available form of help.

That said, the police response once a crime has begun is another matter. If an officer was close enough to hit Kato with a baton, he was close enough to shoot him non-fatally and end his rampage. Yes, there’s a risk of injuring bystanders, but the near-certainty of the killer continuing his stabbing rampage would be the rather obviously bigger danger.

While the police couldn’t have known that the sight of a gun would cause Kato to stop, they could have tried the old “stop or I’ll shoot.” What good reason is there for not trying? Panic, one could reasonably assume, had already set in.

How many people were stabbed after Kato was hit with a baton? After the police were there? For all of those, decisions by the police at least partially led to the outcome, whether that be better or worse than it could have been.