[F. Carl Holz]

Hey,

I will be moving Japan later this year for my job. This isn't a bad thing but I practice wma and I have been lead to believe that, once there, I can kiss the idea of keeping a european sword goodbye. Of course I don't have a real one yet, but I was still hoping to continue training with my SLOs (sword like objects). Given, I was told that these very limited too.

So, my questions run:

Are they really that stringent over/ what are their rules?

And,

What can I hope to train with?

I had considered using modified shinai, but also happened across the realistic sparring weapons. I was told wasters were out.

[Lancelot Chan]

You may want to contact Avalon group if you want to train European style over there. Yup, they also have RSW in their training scheme.

http://www.avalonjp.org

Jay Noyes will be able to better answer you about how stringent it is over there.

[Ben C.]

Japan is extremely strict when it comes to ownership of weapons. It is illegal to carry any knife longer than 15cm or has a blade longer than 6cm. All knives within those restrictions must be concealed when being carried and must not be easily accessible. Swords and other bladed weapons are strongly prohibited under this law.

I think it is possible to own historic weapons for collecting purposes but as far as I know you need both a special collectors license and each item would have to be registered and approved by the government. That is no where near as easy as it sounds... There training tools like shinai and bokken are perfectly legal, so padded and wooden training swords should also be ok. Wall hangers are also fine but only the type that are purely decorative and in no way can be used as weapons or for training. I'd really advise staying away from these as a friend of mine (who has no idea about martial arts) bought one only to have it snap and go through a paper door while he was foolishly swinging it in his apartment.... I have seen a number of stores selling what appear to be legitimately constructed blades (for anywhere from 50,000 to 300,000 yen) but it does seem that you need a license to purchase them.

[F. Carl Holz]

ah, so wasters are legal? That is good news. :P though I may go for one or two of those RSWs anyways