Man sentenced to two years in jail in Japan for making guns with 3D printer

A Japanese court has jailed a man for two years for making guns with a 3D printer in what is believed to be a first in a nation with strict gun controls.

Yoshitomo Imura, 28, was found guilty of making two guns at his home and publishing a video online detailing the process, said the Yokohama District Court.

"The criminal responsibility for this act is serious" as it could encourage others to replicate the act, said the presiding judge Koji Inaba.

Imura, a former employee of the Shonan Institute of Technology, used internet-based information to build the two functional guns, according to the ruling.

He then posted a video online detailing how he built them. Imura's lawyers argued that he did not know his acts were illegal, a notion that the court rejected.

The rapid development of 3D printing technology, which allows relatively cheap machines to construct complex physical objects by building up layers of polymer, has proved a challenge for legislators around the world.