Japanese hostage rescued following stand-off
Japanese police today rescued a hostage 24 hours after she was taken captive by her ex-mobster husband in a shooting spree that killed one policeman and left three other people wounded, news reports said.
The NTV network showed footage of a riot policeman carrying the woman - identified as Michiko Mori - away from the house where she was taken hostage yesterday. The report said she was unhurt.
National broadcaster NHK said the woman had walked out of the house in Nagakute city west of Tokyo.
Mori, 50, was taken hostage when her ex-husband, Hisato Obayashi, also 50, allegedly went on a shooting spree at his home, shooting the couple's son, daughter and two policemen, authorities and news reports said.
Obayashi was apparently still in the house.
One of the policemen died from his wounds. News reports said Obayashi was a former mobster affiliated with Japan's largest Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate, but his motive for the rampage was not known.
Police said Obayashi's wounded daughter had been co-operating with police and spoke with her father several times, urging him to surrender.
In 2005, Mori reported to police she had been abused by Obayashi, and the shooting might be related to their relationship problems, Kyodo said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki condemned the gunman and urged government officials to step up gun control measures.
"This is a gun crime that clearly threatens the peace of public life. It is absolutely unacceptable," Shiozaki said.
Sanae Takaichi, the head of a government gun-control task force, called for "drastic, tougher gun control-measures".
According to witness accounts, several people were arguing outside the suspect's house yesterday before the sound of several gunshots rang out, the national daily Asahi reported.
The incident came just a month after the fatal shooting of the mayor of Nagasaki by an organised crime chief, and a gangster shooting in a Tokyo suburb only a few days later.
The use and possession of guns is relatively alien to the Japanese public. Handguns are strictly limited to police and other professionals such as shooting instructors. Hunting rifles are also licensed and strictly regulated.
Crime syndicates, however, have smuggled foreign guns into Japan. Of the 53 shootings reported in 2006, two-thirds were blamed on organised crime groups, the police agency says.
