Nagasaki News

So there's quite a lot of news going around. First of all the Japan earthquakes. I live in Nagasaki. The earthquakes on the news are hundreds of miles/km away, so no worries. Nagasaki is in general an earthquake-free zone! There hasn't been one in the whole time I've been here, while in Nagoya for example there were earthquakes on a daily basis. So please, do not worry about that. The chances of anyone here even feeling a tremor are MINIMAL.

Next up, guns in Nagasaki. Yes, the mayor of Nagasaki has been shot dead! Nagasaki is in the middle of an election period, so I'm guessing the shooting had something to do with it. Here is the news for those who are interested:

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Dutch:

TOKIO - Burgemeester Itcho Ito (61) van Nagasaki is woensdagochtend (plaatselijke tijd) overleden aan de verwondingen die hij dinsdag bij een aanslag had opgelopen. Dit hebben Japanse media gemeld.

Ito was tijdens de campagne voor zijn herverkiezing zeker twee keer in zijn rug geschoten door ene Tetsuya Shiroo (59). De man behoort volgens de politie tot Yamaguchi-gumi, de grootste criminele organisatie van Japan. Hij is gepakt en heeft een bekentenis afgelegd, aldus het Japanse persbureau Kyodo.

Wapenwetten

Japan heeft zeer strenge wapenwetten. Met uitzondering van jagers en gangsters hebben particulieren in het Aziatische land meestal geen wapens.

Nagasaki verwierf in 1945 wereldwijde bekendheid toen het als tweede Japanse stad werd bestookt met een Amerikaanse atoombom. Ito gaf steun aan de slachtoffers van de atoombom en zette zich in voor nucleaire ontwapening.

English:

Nagasaki Mayor Itoh dies after being shot by gang member
04/18/2007

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

NAGASAKI--Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Itoh died early Wednesday after being shot in the back twice Tuesday night in front of his campaign office where he had just returned after stumping for Sunday's election. The 61-year-old mayor was unconscious and in critical condition, and he was pronounced dead at a hospital at 2:28 a.m. Wednesday, officials said. He was treated in the intensive care unit at the Nagasaki University Hospital.
The suspected gunman was overpowered by people at the scene near JR Nagasaki Station.
Police arrested the man, Tetsuya Shiroo, 59, a senior member of a yakuza gang affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, on suspicion of murder.
Shiroo told police he shot Itoh, but he has not explained the motive for the attack, police said, adding that they had confiscated a firearm.
The attack occurred at around 7:50 p.m. Tuesday. A witness said he heard two shots and a woman scream.
"I was working when a colleague said there might have been a shooting," the witness said. "And when I went out, I saw a guy and a woman holding down a man in black clothes on his stomach at a pedestrian crossing."
The witness said the man was holding a gun.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters in Tokyo after the shooting, "I want investigative authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and reveal the truth."
Itoh, mayor of the second city hit by an atomic bomb, has won international recognition for his promotion of nuclear disarmament.
He is running in the mayoral election Sunday for a fourth term.
Itoh won a seat on the Nagasaki city assembly for the first time in 1975. He later served as a prefectural assembly member before running and winning the mayoral election in April 1995.
He has since been re-elected twice, in 1999 and in 2003.
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I actually heard about this quite soon after it happened. I was at a bowling competition that Sachi had entered, and they got the news on their cellphones. I was no where near where it happened however and I don't have more details than what it already says in the news.

Well, so far for the excitement in Nagasaki. Election period has been horrible anyway. They campaign by driving around with vans with loudspeakers yelling the candidates' names and just going thank you thank you as if you'd even consider voting for someone who wakes you up at 8 in the morning on sunday to scream such things. Anyway, today there has been no campaigning like this as far as I know, it's been quiet all day. Maybe because of last night's happening? I don't know.