Japan ? Japan adopted stricter gun control guidelines Wednesday following a spate of gangster shootings that rattled a nation renowned for its crime-free streets, a government official said.

The measures are intended to reduce the smuggling of guns into Japan by organized crime groups and focus on getting rid of guns already in circulation, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimomura said.

“Most of the guns that are confiscated in Japan are foreign guns,” Shimomura said. “It is important to prevent an influx of these guns from abroad.”

Calls for more stringent gun control have intensified in the wake of last week’s fatal shooting of Nagasaki’s mayor, and a gangster attack in the streets of a Tokyo suburb a few days later.

“We must prevent this nation from becoming flooded with guns, no matter what,” Japan’s largest daily Yomiuri Shimbun said in an editorial Sunday.