Japan Hunter Gun License Ruling: What 7 Years of Fighting Back Reveals About Your Personality Type

# Japan Hunter Gun License Ruling: What 7 Years of Fighting Back Reveals About Your Personality Type

> **Quick answer:** Japan's Supreme Court ruled in March 2026 that Hokkaido's revocation of hunter Haruo Ikegami's gun license was an illegal abuse of power. He shot a bear at a city's request in 2018, had his Japan hunter gun license revoked the following year, then spent seven years fighting in court to get it back. On April 9, 2026, the prefecture returned his rifle and apologized. How you react to that story — with admiration, rage, or total bafflement — maps directly onto your resilience personality type.

The Japan hunter gun license court ruling that just wrapped up is the kind of story that makes some people say "finally" and others say "I would have given up years ago." Ikegami didn't give up. And that difference? It's not luck or stubbornness. It's psychology.

## The Japan Hunter Gun License Court Ruling: What Actually Happened

In August 2018, Haruo Ikegami, a 77-year-old hunter and head of the Sunagawa branch of the Hokkaido hunting club, was asked by Sunagawa city officials and local police to cull a brown bear that had become a public safety threat. He fired his rifle. The bear was killed. The bullet remained inside the animal.

In April 2019, the Hokkaido Prefectural Public Safety Commission revoked his hunting license anyway, claiming his shots could have struck nearby buildings. A lower court sided with Ikegami, finding the bullet never exited the bear and the shot was conducted safely. A second-instance court reversed that, ruling a bullet *could* have passed through.