Man shoots himself at Japan's parliament

[Excessum]

Saw this on the news today...
March 5

A man carrying a protest letter to Prime Minister

Yasuo Fukuda has fatally shot himself in the head in front of Japan's parliament building, police say.

The man, who appeared to be in his 60s, got out of a taxi in front of the south gate of the parliament building and fired the gun, according to local police official Hiromu Kawaguchi.

He was later confirmed dead at a hospital, another Tokyo police official said on Wednesday.

Media reports said that the man was a right-wing activist.

The man was carrying a protest letter to Fukuda urging him to handle foreign policy and the issue of the Yasukuni war shrine "firmly," according to the second official.

He also was carrying another letter to the media calling on them to promote visits to the war shrine by the people of Japan, the Tokyo Police official said.

While critics call Yasukuni a symbol of Japan's past militarism, right-wing Japanese extremists support the shrine, which honours Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including wartime leaders executed for their World War II crimes.

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi infuriated China and South Korea with his repeated visits.

Fukuda, a foreign policy dove, says he will not visit the shrine.

Source: Yahoo! News

[kunitokotachi]

Did they say where he got the gun from?

[Excessum]

Originally Posted by kunitokotachi

Did they say where he got the gun from?

Nope... i checked other news sites as well and it was nowhere mentioned.

As far as i know, it is really hard to get a firearm in Japan, so i also thought it was rather strange.

[anrakushi]

i was in shock for a second there as i thought each line was a new sentence. so the line that said : "Yasuo Fukuda has fatally shot himself in the head in front of Japan's parliament building, police say" freaked me out for a second.

people are going to be angry at me for this but i support the visits to the shrine myself. If the visits are there to honour those who gave their lives for their country and NOT to honour the crimes and awful things done then I don't see a problem with it. Should Japan just forget all those lives lost in it's war because they lost and were the aggressor while other east asian and involved western countries are allowed to remember because they were the victims and liberators?

People make things too political, former Prime Minister Koizumi went to the shrine for personal reasons as well, i believe he had a relative who died in the war and he wanted to honour him.

as i said i support visiting the shrine from the point of honouring those who gave their lives for their country but NOT for the actions they they committed.

[kunitokotachi]

Originally Posted by anrakushi

as i said i support visiting the shrine from the point of honouring those who gave their lives for their country but NOT for the actions they they committed.

Good point.

[Kajitsu]

Did you say "it's"?
You meant "its," right?
Good points, though.

[kireikoori]

....I would visit Yasukuni. Not because I support what Japan or Germany did, but because I respect Japanese religion and I hold sympathy for the axis as well as the allies.

Are foreigners allowed at Yasukuni?

[Michigan90]

Originally Posted by kireikoori

....I would visit Yasukuni. Not because I support what Japan or Germany did, but because I respect Japanese religion and I hold sympathy for the axis as well as the allies.

Are foreigners allowed at Yasukuni?

Of course. No one is barred from attending any shrine. I'm personally more attached to other shrines though, like Ise, Meiji, Izumo, and Heian Jingu, which are people's shrines.

I think this incident has more to do with growing mistrust in quality of Chinese products imported into Japan and many other countries, especially food and manufactured goods. This is a serious problem for us.

[Tyrien]

Well since he's 80 I can say that's a pretty classy death.

[QuoyaNatsume]

I'm just wondering:

1. where did he get the gun from
2.What the reaction of other activists will be after seeing this man's sacrafice over the shrine??