The campaign started in the flight home of Mieko Hattori's trip to bring Yoshi's body. The words of Web, Yoshihiro's host brother, gave her an idea for the campaign. He had said, "I will write to Mr. Clinton, a candidate for the next presidency, that my friend from Japan, Yoshi, has become a victim of the gun culture of America, and I urge you to change this situation regarding guns in the United State." She realized the close relationship between the President of the United States and its citizens, and thought if she petitioned President for gun control, the situation might change. Then she wrote a draft of "Petition for Removing Guns from Households in the United States" in the plane.
Petition forms were handed out as early as at the wake of Yoshihiro. Within two months they collected over one million signatures, some of which were handed to American ambassador Mr. Armacost. That feat was achieved with the help of mass media as well as members of "Yoshi Coalition," Yoshi's high school classmates, nation-wide organizations of AFS, YFU, and other agencies for exchange students, and many other people. The petition campaign simultaneously started in the United States by the Haymakers, Yoshi's host family.
On November 16, 1993, the Hattori and Haymaker families met President Clinton and handed him 1.7 million signatures from Japan and one hundred and fifty thousand petitions collected in the United States. All their activities in Washington DC were coordinated by Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV). During the meeting, President Clinton claimed that use of handguns should be limited to the police and the military personnel.
The Brady Bill passed in the Congress on November 20, 1993, during the Hattoris' visit in Washington, DC, and it was surely helped by the petitions.