Two separate shootings in Kobe on Wednesday left one person dead and another injured — a rare case of gun violence in relatively safe Japan. The fatal shooting occurred in Kobe’s Chuo Ward, where 58-year old Masayuki Akada was discovered collapsed and bleeding after a call to police at around 1:15 p.m. Akada, a company executive, was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A few minutes later, another man was shot in the city’s Hyogo Ward. However, his injuries were not life-threatening. Naoto Kametani, 79, was arrested later that day on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with the Hyogo Ward incident.
Kametani, a former yakuza member, reportedly admitted to the charges, telling Hyogo Prefectural Police that there was “no mistake” about the police’s suspicions. Kametani is suspected of shooting a 54-year old man in the abdomen while the man was in a car parked in a residential parking spot. Police are still investigating whether Kametani was also involved in the fatal Chuo Ward shooting.
Shootings, particularly fatal ones, very rarely occur in Japan. According to the Hyogo Prefectural Police, there were zero incidents in which a firearm was discharged in both 2024 and 2025 in the prefecture. Nationwide, there was one such incident last year, down from a combined 31 between 2021 and 2024.
A large portion of the few shooting cases and deaths have been gang-related, with seven out of 15 shooting deaths between 2021 and 2025 having involved gangs.
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