{"id":711,"date":"2012-07-22T02:51:31","date_gmt":"2012-07-22T08:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/?p=711"},"modified":"2012-07-13T20:53:06","modified_gmt":"2012-07-14T02:53:06","slug":"customs-officials-say-pens-need-weapons-import-license","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/22\/customs-officials-say-pens-need-weapons-import-license\/","title":{"rendered":"Customs officials say pens need weapons import license"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.japantoday.com\/images\/size\/200x\/2012\/07\/photo_1342199509196-1-0.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Japanese customs officials who impounded 200 pens more than a year ago said Friday the writing implements needed a weapons import license because they were shaped like bullets.<\/p>\n<p>Fountain and ballpoint pens made by U.S. firearms and knife manufacturers, including Smith and Wesson, have been held up by inspectors in Nagoya and Osaka since April 2011.<\/p>\n<p>The pens, which are made from a mixture of titanium and other metals, are fashioned to resemble bullets on the non-writing end.<\/p>\n<p>A Nagoya customs official told AFP that under international regulations, the pens are classified as self-defense weapons, adding: \u201cSpecial procedures are needed for the import of such products.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Japanese knife retailer Yamahide Cutlery, which ordered the pens, said the suspension was unfair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow could you kill someone with a pen?\u201d asked company president Toshio Yamada. \u201cIt is hard to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yamada said he had no intention of applying for a weapons import license \u201cbecause I don\u2019t think they are weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company had successfully imported and sold the pens, which ranged in price between 5,500 yen and 32,500 yen, from 2008 to 2011. <\/p>\n<p>Photo by: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japanese customs officials who impounded 200 pens more than a year ago said Friday the writing implements needed a weapons import license because they were shaped like bullets. Fountain and ballpoint pens made by U.S. firearms and knife manufacturers, including Smith and Wesson, have been held up by inspectors in Nagoya and Osaka since April [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":714,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions\/714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}