The Japanese sword experience was one of our main programs, so this is a real blow to us.

The sword is probably 10x more dangerous to the tourist but I guess you can't rule out some 10 dan black belt going nuts and trying to make a statement by attacking staff.

What's the other plan, letting the tourist using plastic one from 100 yen store?

From owning a sharpened sword, I would want no part of that for Iaido practice. Just get them a metal sword that would struggle to cut butter.

Egads…if significant elements of Japanese history and culture cannot even be practiced in controlled environments, there is something wrong with the law.

Next up: Public cooking classes, which could also technically be found in violation of Japan’s knife laws. It is legal to own a kitchen knife, but walk out your front door with it, and it’s more or less up to the police to judge if you have a “good” reason.

I take it the guy is not suggesting the Firearms and Swords Control Law should be changed just so foreign tourists can play samurai in Yamagata.

If other practitioners of iaido had a problem with the law, presumably we'd have heard about it before now. Whatever the law says has not shut down the tradition as a whole, just a tourist attraction in one of the provinces.

The sword is probably 10x more dangerous to the tourist

That could be justification enough according to the law when the purpose is public safety.

If all the regular citizens here do, I think we can also expect from all foreigners and tourists to just accept and abide to that Firearms and Swords Control Law. Do and experience whatever you want, but elsewhere, if it is allowed there, like shooting ranges in neighboring SK and of course in US for example. Maybe there's also the one or other country allowing to play around with real swords and practicing real Iaido, but I don't know about this in detail.