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TOKYO: A Japanese police panel has recommended a ban on possession of highly lethal double-edged knives after a troubled young man went on a stabbing spree in central Tokyo.
A panel of legal and other experts has submitted a report to the National Police Agency, saying daggers and other double-edged knives should be banned "to prevent their use in serious crimes."
Such knives are "originally intended for stabbing and are highly dangerous... while being less efficient as a tool," the panel said in the report released online.
The panel, which also recommends tightening laws on firearms, is inviting public opinion on the report.
"We will decide on whether the current law should be revised after taking into account opinions from the public and experts," a spokeswoman at the National Police Agency said.
A ban on the double-edged blades would be Japan's first tightening of laws on knife possession in 46 years, according to Japanese media.
Disgruntled auto worker Tomohiro Kato, 25, was armed with a double-edged dagger when he went on a June 8 massacre in Tokyo's high-tech and alternative culture district of Akihabara.
Kato rammed a rented truck into pedestrians before bursting out and slashing people at random. Seven people were killed.
The most recent knife scare in Japan came Wednesday when a 14-year-old boy hijacked a bus, although he quickly surrendered to police.
The boy reportedly had trouble with parents over his choice of girlfriend.
"He was saying his parents are abandoning him... He was saying 'I want to trouble them' and 'I want to embarrass them'," one of the passengers on the hijacked bus told Japanese television.
- AFP/yb
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