The British government has said it is planning to ban the possession of ninja swords in the UK, in a bid to curb what it describes as a ‘national knife crime crisis'.
Carrying a ninja sword from August 1 could carry a penalty of up to six months in jail.
That is set to rise to two years under forthcoming legislation.
The Home Office on Thursday said most ninja swords had a blade of between 14 and 24 inches (36 and 61 centimetres), with one straight cutting edge and a tanto style — or sharply-angled — tip.
There is already a penalty of up to four years in prison for carrying any weapon in public.
The ninja sword ban is the final part of the so-called Ronan’s law, which is a raft of anti-knife crime measures introduced in parliament last month as part of the government’s crime and policing bill.
The law is named after Ronan Kanda, a teenager who was murdered with a ninja sword in 2022 by two other teenagers in a case of mistaken identity.
