'No matter what the reason is, we should not let such a crime happen at any cost,' Mr Fukuda (above) told reporters. -- PHOTO: AP

A man opened fire on Friday night at a private gym in Sasebo, western Japan, killing two people and injuring six.

'No matter what the reason is, we should not let such a crime happen at any cost,' Mr Fukuda told reporters.

'There must be problems with usage standards or ways to control (guns),' Mr Fukuda told reporters. 'We have to carefully consider the details of them.'

The gunman, unemployed 37-year-old Masayoshi Magome, fired 10 shots and briefly took 10 people hostage before fleeing and turning the gun on himself in an apparent suicide.

The victims were a 26-year-old swimming instructor and a 36-year-old fisherman, who was reportedly a childhood friend of the gunman.

The killer, who had permits for three shotguns and an air gun for the purpose of hunting, reportedly possessed more than 2,500 gun pellets, three times as many as an authorised hunter is allowed.

'We need an urgent review of the case,' Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference. 'People say Japan's gun-control is the tightest in the world, but we want to consider if we have to further tighten control from now on.'

Japan already strictly controls guns, with only police and licensed hunters and some sportsmen allowed to own firearms, but as many as 300,000 rifles are registered across the country.

Japan experienced 54 criminal shootings between January and November this year, with 30 deaths or injuries, up from 44 shootings in the same period last year.

Japan's parliament revised the national gun-control laws in November, toughening punishments against gangsters for possessing or using guns following a series of shootings involving organised crime. -- AFP