Netto Ranchyaa catches on at local schools

Chugoku Shimbun reported a meeting held at Midorii Elementary school in Asa-minami-ku on April 20th where 75 school and bank employees were treated to a demonstration of the power of "net lauchers" in subduing dangerous intruders. According to local police Asa-minami is one of Hiroshima city's highest crime areas. The net launcher looks like a large flashlight and releases a 3 meter square net which the manufacturer claims will ensnare an intruder when fired from a range of 3-5 meters. It sells for around ¥20,000.

Volunteers were shown how to fire the launcher and subdue intruders. According to a company representative the net is very difficult to cut and is designed so that the more a captured intruder struggles the more ensared he or she becomes. A school principle was quoted as saying, "It seems very easy to use, and with so many cases of intruders in schools around the country we should look into their use in schools."

© Chugoku Shimbun

GH wonders what happens if would-be intruders send off for their own Net Lauchers - do two launchers cancel each other out? Will school security staff and teachers be trained to prevent themselves being ensared and left to look on as intruders armed with a battery of Net Launchers (it is unclear from their website if Nihon Koki give a discount for bulk orders) run amok through the classrooms?

Within Hiroshima Prefecture their deployment has already been approved in Onomichi and Otake.

The Chugoku Shimbun article appears in Japanese here.