TOKYO, JAPAN - Japan saw a 25 percent rise in gun violence last year with a resurgence in gangland conflicts, despite the country's tight control on firearms, police said Thursday.

Japan prides itself on having one of the world's lowest crime rates but saw a series of high-profile shootings last year including the assassination of a mayor.

The number of shooting incidents in 2007 rose to 66 with those involving underworld syndicates rising to 42, the National Police Agency said in a statement.

The number of casualties in last year's incidents doubled from 19 in 2006 to 40 last year with the number of deaths jumping to 22 from two, the agency said. Of the dead, 12 were members of gangster groups.

The agency said there were 12 gangland conflicts last year compared with none in 2006.

"Gangster groups are beginning to use firearms with the intent of killing people, not just intimidating them," the statement said.

Japan in November toughened punishments on gangsters for possessing guns. Japan's gangs, or 'yakuza,' hold interests in urban nightlife and other businesses.

In April, Nagasaki mayor Iccho Ito was shot dead by a gangster affiliated with Japan's largest crime syndicate, Yamaguchi-gumi, who held a personal grudge against him.

In May a former gangster killed a police officer, shot his two children and held his partner hostage for two days before surrendering near the central city of Nagoya.

A 37-year-old gunman also killed a female instructor and his own friend at a sports club in Sasebo, near Nagasaki, in December.

Japan allows only police, licensed hunters and some athletes to own firearms, with up to 300,000 rifles registered across the country of 127 million people.