KOBE -- A 54-year-old man here who claims to have made a pen-shaped pistol and an air gun he called an "antitank gun" was arrested on Jan. 15.

Hyogo Prefectural Police arrested Hidekazu Yanai, a company executive in Kobe's Chuo Ward, on suspicion of violating the firearms control law for allegedly possessing a pen-shaped pistol. He has reportedly admitted to the allegations and was quoted as saying, "I should have thrown it away if I knew this would happen."

Yanai is specifically accused of possessing a pen-shaped pistol with lethal capability at his home doubling as a workshop in Kobe in September 2024. After receiving a tip, the police conducted a house search and seized the weapon.

According to the prefectural police's drug and firearm countermeasures division, 90 other items, including air guns and what the suspect referred to as an "antitank gun," were also seized from his workshop. Of these, 16 were found to potentially violate the firearm control law, as they were identified as firearms or air guns.

During the house search, Yanai also claimed to have made the antitank gun himself, leading the police to investigate potential violations of the weapons manufacturing law, which prohibits the unauthorized production of firearms.

A video posted on his YouTube channel shows the antitank gun being fired indoors, with targets stacked up bursting apart.

(Japanese original by Yuta Shibayama, Kobe Bureau)