The 2010 Habikino shooting was a deadly spree shooting which occurred at a drinking establishment located just south of Eganoshō Station in Habikino, Osaka Prefecture, Japan on 12 January 2010.

The attack was carried out by 49-year-old Yasuhisa Sugiura. Three people, including the gunman's mother-in-law, were shot dead before the perpetrator committed suicide.

Shooting incidents such as these are rare in Japan.

Sugiura

Yasuhisa Sugiura, 49, was a government employee in Japan's second city Osaka. According to police, he was involved in a "troubled marriage" with a 48-year-old woman.

Shooting

On 12 January 2010, Sugiura went to the Ii-chan bar to discuss a divorce with his mother-in-law, 66-year-old Yoshiko Tanaka, who would subsequently become one of his victims. The bar was open for business and had other customers inside; Sugiura's wife was possibly one of them. Sugiura then departed. Sugiura came back armed with a rifle and opened fire at approximately 20:00 that evening, killing three people. Two of Sugiura's targets — the mother-in-law and a 23-year-old bar employee named Tatsuya Fukui — died immediately; a third, 49-year-old bar landlord Hiroto Uehara, died shortly thereafter. Witnesses described the rifle shots as "three or four blunt bangs"; a pool of blood was left in front of the bar.

Sugiura then exited the bar and shot himself in the abdomen, killing himself.

Wikipedia.org

Gunman kills three in bar, self

JapanTimes.co.jp

January 14, 2010

OSAKA (Kyodo) An Osaka city employee gunned down three people in a bar Tuesday evening in Habikino, Osaka Prefecture, before committing suicide, police said.

The shooter was identified as Yasuhisa Sugiura, 49. The three victims in the 8 p.m. carnage included Tatsuya Fukui, 23, a part-time employee at the bar, and Yoshiko Tanaka, 66, Sugiura’s mother-in-law, the police said.

Hiroto Uehara, 49, the owner of the bar, died later.

According to witnesses, Sugiura and his mother-in-law were at the bar to talk about he and her daughter getting a divorce. In the middle of the discussion, Sugiura became excited and left. Returning with a shotgun, he shot Tanaka and the two others. Sugiura then shot himself outside the bar.

Several months earlier, Sugiura’s mother-in-law, a former member of the municipal assembly in Habikino, told an acquaintance that her daughter had a troubled marriage, according to the police.

The bar is in a residential area about 3 km south of Eganosho Station.

Japan gunman Yasuhisa Sugiura kills self after shooting 3 in Osaka bar

Whatsonxiamen.com

January 13, 2010

A middle-aged man killed himself after fatally shooting his mother-in-law and two other people with a shotgun Tuesday in a bar in western Japan, police and reports said.

The shooting occurred at around 8:00 pm (1100 GMT) in Hibikino City, outside Osaka, an Osaka prefectural police spokesman said.

"The suspect fired the shotgun inside the bar and then shot himself on a street outside," the official said by telephone.

The gunman was later identified as an Osaka city government employee, Yasuhisa Sugiura, 49, Kyodo news agency reported.

The three victims included his mother-in-law Yoshiko Tanaka, 66, and bar employee Tatsuya Fukui, 23. Bar owner Hiroto Uehara, 49, was critically wounded in the attack and died later, Kyodo said, quoting police.

Sugiura and his mother-in-law were at the bar to talk about a divorce, according to witnesses, Kyodo reported.

He got excited and left in the middle of the discussion, returning later with a shotgun, it said.

Gun crimes are rare in Japan, where illegal possession of a firearm carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.