Gun Tourism: Restricted at Home, Many Japanese Travel to Guam to Shoot Guns

Some travel to Guam for the white sandy beaches, coral reefs and the easy-going island lifestyle. But Japanese tourists go for an entirely different reason: to shoot guns.

In Japan, according to Time.com, gun ownership is tightly restricted, and handguns are banned. So Japanese citizens who want to shoot guns for sport head to Guam, where they shoot at its well-known ranges, some of which are tucked behind shopping centers, Time.com reported.

Although the shock over December's Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting extended worldwide, the gun tourism industry in Guam is doing very well, according to Time.com.

"It was such a feeling of power," Keigo Takizawa, a 30-year-old Japanese actor, told Time.com after blasting holes in a paper target with a shotgun, a .44 magnum and a Smith & Wesson revolver at the Western Frontier Village gun club, a cowboy-themed indoor shooting range and gift shop on Guam's main shopping street. "But I still don't think anyone should be allowed to have one of their own."

In Japan, the only people with guns are the police, the military and the mob -- so the Japanese find American gun culture both fascinating and frightening. For them, though, Guam is America, Time.com reported.

"I think it's human nature to be curious about something that is forbidden," Tetsuo Yamamoto, a Japanese native who emigrated to the United States 30 years ago and runs the Western Frontier Village range, told Time.com. "Most of our customers are from Japan and have never had the opportunity to shoot a gun. It's very exotic for them, and it's very exhilarating."

But other visitors, like those from South Korea, Taiwan and increasingly Russia, don't experience that same exhilaration.

"To them, learning how to use a gun was a chore," Patrick Chon, general-manager of the Hafa Adai indoor shooting range, told Time.com. "It brings back bad memories. They hardly ever come here."

Chon's range plays into the images that Japanese have come to expect about American gun culture -- posters from films like "Terminator" and "Die Hard" line the walls, Time.com reported.

"When most Japanese people think of American culture, one of the first things they think of is guns," Natsue Matsumoto, 38, a tourist from Osaka who said she enjoyed shooting so much she returned to a range for the second time in three days, told Time.com. "American movies and video games are full of guns and that's appealing, in a frightening sort of way."

Yet she continued: "But I think Japan has it right. If you don't have a gun, you can't kill someone with it."