Japan's death rate seems higher than the US by quite a bit (14 vs 10 per 1000). I believe this is because they have far greater violent death than the US, but don't call most killings 'murder'. E.g. a person that owes money is found hanged in a Japanese park, it's suicide even when it's obvious they cannot have hanged themselves.

Culture plays a large role in statistics. It's hard to interpret from outside. But surely the choice of weapon is less meaningful than the outcomes.

The term 'gun violence' is designed to cherry-pick numbers out of a whole landscape of social problems and argue toward a point.