I had some reservations about posting this piece of news to be honest because there’s been so much negative material here recently (Ito’s assassination, School Shooting, measles outbreak) but this is what people are talking about and what’s in the news so its important to at least mention it once.

A man believed to be a member of the yakuza has shot and killed a man and is currently barricaded inside a home in Tokyo.

Reuters has published a report which you can read here.

Here is a portion of what is currently happening out there:

here were no hostages, but residents near the apartment, belonging to a gang member in Machida, on the west side of the capital, had been evacuated, police said.

Riot police wearing helmets and bulletproof vests and carrying shields were still stationed near the apartment some seven hours after the incident began.

“I heard three shots, bang, bang, bang. We were told by police to stay inside,” a woman living nearby told Nippon Television by telephone.

Police said the man had fired nine shots from the apartment, with one hitting a police vehicle, but no one had been injured.

Earlier, the suspect fatally shot a gangster outside a convenience store in a nearby city and then fled, Kyodo news agency said.

Police confirmed that the victim was shot dead but did not say whether he belonged to a crime syndicate. A senior member of a crime syndicate talked to the gunman on the phone and urged him to surrender, media said.

“I would like to express my apologies by killing myself,” the gunman was quoted as saying.

But the suspect later stopped answering his mobile phone, Kyodo news agency and public broadcaster NHK said.

Children at nearby schools were met by parents who escorted them home, many holding hands, TV footage showed.

Japan has strict gun control laws and legal firearms are mostly in the hands of hunters and police, but the shooting of the Nagasaki mayor by a gangster on Tuesday has prompted lawmakers, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to call for even tighter supervision.

“The incidents involving guns followed the fatal shooting of the Nagasaki mayor and it is truly regrettable and grave,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters.