An 84-year-old woman in the town of Takachiho, Miyazaki Prefecture, was accidentally shot by a man who was hunting in the area, Yomiuri Online reports.
The incident occurred at approximately 10:50 on Tuesday morning in a woodland area close to the border between Miyazaki Prefecture and neighboring Kumamoto. The wounded woman, believed to be making her way home after buying groceries, was passing through the area in which the 66-year-old farmer was hunting alone.
Reports suggest that the man fired in the woman’s direction with his shotgun after hearing a noise coming from between the trees, hitting her in the abdomen. When questioned, the man said that he mistook the woman for the wild boar he had been in pursuit of.
There is no word yet as to the woman’s condition, but prefectural police are investigating the incident.
Source: Yomiuri Online
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- How to Butcher a Wild Boar in Your Kitchen -- Hunting: The newest growing hobby of Japanese women -- Man leaps onto train tracks to save fallen woman
© RocketNews24
20 Comments
Login to comment
CraigHicks
There was another similar hunting accident just a few weeks ago. Is it a coincidence, or are people becoming less able to follow rules and more prone to pulling a trigger without thinking?
Yubaru
I wonder, was she wearing "orange"? If she wasn't then there are folks here that believe it's all her fault! (Rolling eyes sarcasm)
I hope she is ok.
slumdog
This give the incorrect impression that he saw something and was mistaken. However, it is much worse than that:
He shot when he heard a sound? Unbelievable and irresponsible.
OssanAmerica
We are in gun season here in the US and getting all sorts of accident reports. Like his story a great manof them are caused by the violation of the primary rule to always know what you are shooting a beyond. Anyone who shoots at a sound needs to have his firearm and license taken away.
nandakandamanda
Many of the old folks in Japan are bent double from a lifetime of working in the fields. Small, dressed in brown clothes, bent over a shopping cart, she might have looked quite unlike how we here imagine a walking person should appear. Not that this is any excuse but it might help explain the accident a little better.
ReformedBasher
Agreed Ossan.
One thing that worries me when I come across hunters is that they are often near habitation. Understandable to a point if they are shooting pests, but still dangerous. I've seen them waiting and watching on hiking trails - as far as I'm concerned they should never be on a trail itself, but if they must be near one, they and their firearm should always be facing away from it. And always identify what you are aiming at before you shoot. People do walk off trail for different reasons (to take a leak etc)
Cos
I hope they check him for alcohol excess and dementia.
Yes. Plus I doubt she was crossing the woods with her groceries, she was surely walking on some kind of road or alley, and you're supposed to know the area (or use a map) to know where you can hunt. Then it's weird to go shooting boars on your own without even dogs.
Nope. He would have shot her as a fox.
Disillusioned
For the small amount of gun owners in Japan this seems to happen quite regularly. Do they actually receive any kind of training when they get their permit? Are the words "confirm your target" part of their jargon?
Dennis Bauer
Was she wearing a fur coat and was bended over? Or maybe he didn't approve the Grocery shop she ventured?
Blacklabel
If I were a woman I think I would be more mad that someone thought I resembled a wild boar than I would be mad about getting shot.....
alejandra
I remember they recorded a similar accident in Japan "a man shot for being mistaken for a deer". We can't afford having someone shot "de temps en temps" for such ridiculous reason !
wildwest
He shoots line I do at 8 ball, just bang and hope.
Brian Wheway
If someone cant tell the deference between a wild boar ( which move quickly) and a old lady (that moves slowly) either 1 wants his eyes testing or 2 his gun ticket revoking
rickyvee
i didn't know there was such a thing as "gun season" in america. hunting season, maybe.
the title is a bit misleading. he's not really a hunter, but a farmer who was trying to shoot at a wild boar. i'm guessing he was just really scared and shot quickly at the noise he heard.
Crazedinjapan
Everyone missed the point....he shot at a sound...he didn't even identify what he was shooting at.
slumdog
Not everyone. In addition to another poster and myself, it was also mentioned in the article itself in the form of a quote from the man saying he shot in her direction after hearing a noise.
Bad2Dbone
well, now the ladies are taking the hobby too, I will not be surprise when the story becomes reverse, "young woman hunter, shoot old man thinking that he was a pervert Boar , that species is very unique to the Japonica islands ,"
OssanAmerica
A Hunting season is often broken up into small game, big game and also for Bow only and Firearms. The firearms season is what we call the "gun season".
If what my friends who have hunted in Japan tell me is correct, unlike in the US where a farmer may have a shotgun, a Japanese hunter must register and pass a rather rigorous exam process. Apparently the problem with this is that some of these hunters got their license many decades ago and are now much older and less careful.
toshiko
Miyazaki-ken is in southern Kyushu - hot place. Furs coat in Summer there? More likely she had a short sleeve white blouse. BTW, it is gun season in USA now. Many many pistol shooting crimes. We call gun season. Hunting go3s to hunting areas. Crime ridden cities, we call gun season. Gun owners have been demanded to have their guns in locked safe. Some kids bring a gun to shoot classmates and teachers. Thus law enforcement offices call guns= season in cities. Cowboy states, maybe hunting seasons. Not everywhere in USA is wild outside. We don;t call criminals shooting people or inside of store, People hunting.