Donald Trump reportedly told the Emperor of Japan that mass shootings can occur "anywhere", despite the country having some of the world's most stringent gun control policies.
The US President met Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko before a round of talks with Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, on Monday.
When the emperor brought up Sunday's mass killing at a church in Texas, Mr Trump called it a "terrible incident" and said the killings "can happen anywhere", according to the Mainichi Shimbun.
Texas church shooting: What we know so far
A lone gunman killed 26 people at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, the worst such massacre by a lone gunman in Texas and one of the five most lethal in modern US history.
It came a little over a month after another lone shooter killed 58 people and injured hundreds more in Las Vegas.
But in Japan, gun deaths are measured in single figures annually, compared to tens of thousands in the US.
Donald Trump tramples over fish-feeding ritual by chucking entire box into pond
Handguns are banned and anyone seeking a licence for a shotgun or air rifle must undergo a string of background checks, a written test and health evaluations.
Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far...
17 show all Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far...
1/17 Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Donald Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” REUTERS/Carlos Barria
2/17 Asked for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Donald Trump couldn’t help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of “The Apprentice” — which buoyed Mr Trump’s celebrity status years ago. AFP/Getty Images
3/17 Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Donald Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the “worst call” he had had so far. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
4/17 The 'muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administration’s argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security. Bryan R Smith/Getty
5/17 Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Donald Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the President picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there. AP
6/17 Called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be “little Rocket Man” as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea.
7/17 Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Donald Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticizing Mr Khan for saying there was “no reason to be alarmed” after the attack. Mr Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Mr Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control. Getty Images
8/17 Claimed presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Donald Trump mocked MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to “join” him. He noted that she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” at the time, and that he said no.
9/17 Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
10/17 Retweeted cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Donald Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet.
11/17 Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Donald Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Mr Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of “fake news”.
12/17 Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Donald Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop. Getty Images
13/17 Not realizing being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Donald Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Mr Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire. REUTERS
14/17 Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Mr Obama had not, in fact, done so. Reuters
15/17 Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Donald Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Ms Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.)
16/17 Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Donald Trump’s White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didn’t mention “jews” or even the word “jewish” in the written statement. Getty Images
17/17 Anger over Inauguration crowd size Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Mr Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didn’t. The day was very dreary. Reuters
Even police rarely use their sidearms and must attain a black belt in judo or other Japanese martial art before qualifying.
Journalist Anthony Berteaux told the BBC earlier this year: "What most Japanese police will do is get huge futons and essentially roll up a person who is being violent or drunk into a little burrito and carry them back to the station to calm them down."
zangorn on November 7th, 2017 at 21:58 UTC »
I was in Japan in 2000, and there was a big controversial police story at the time. What happened was this, a police officer pulled someone over, and at one point, took his gun out and aimed it at the person. That's it.
Huge controversy. People got upset that police would do that to a citizen at a traffic stop.
mackfeesh on November 7th, 2017 at 17:58 UTC »
"What most Japanese police will do is get huge futons and essentially roll up a person who is being violent or drunk into a little burrito and carry them back to the station to calm them down."
That's what's up! LOL. Dude you're drunk roll home.
BloomEPU on November 7th, 2017 at 16:27 UTC »
Japanese Emperor: stares into the camera like he's on the office