A twenty-seven year old Japanese man was arrested on suspicion of printing and possessing guns. This is the first instance of such an arrest being made in Japan. According to ANN News, Yoshitomo Imura allegedly downloaded gun blueprints from a foreign site and then printed the resin guns with his 3D printer. Imura had apparently uploaded videos to YouTube in which he fired off what looks to be a 3D printed pistol. Last month, police seized five 3D printed guns from Imura’s Kawasaki City home.
Japan is putting its strict firearms-control laws up against the latest in digital manufacturing with the arrest of a man who allegedly made 3D-printed guns. Yoshitomo Imura, 27, was collared Thursday on a charge of illegal weapons possession in Japan’s first such case involving 3D-printed firearms, according to media reports. A raid last month on his home in Kawasaki outside Tokyo turned up five printed guns, two of which can fire real bullets. However, no bullets were recovered. Imura, an employee of Shonan Institute of Technology in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, had apparently posted footage of the guns as well as production blueprints online, and mentioned production on Twitter. Japanese news media posted clips from a grainy YouTube video that apparently shows Imura firing one of the guns in a wooded area.
