While collectors and martial arts enthusiasts are to be allowed to continue to import genuine samurai swords, the fake variety, which go for as little as $70 over the Internet, are to be banned.
Anyone breaking the new law will face six months in jail and a 5,000 pound ($10,000) fine.
The Home Office confirmed plans to make the weapons illegal in England and Wales after the idea was initially proposed earlier this year. Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said the public was clearly at danger from such cheap and widely-available lethal weapons.
Calls for a ban came after a number of high-profile attacks involving cheap samurai-style swords.
Earlier in the month, a British man was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years for the murder of a passer-by, attacking him with a samurai sword after an altercation with another man he believed had attempted to rape his wife.
There have been some 80 attacks in recent years involving samurai-style swords, and at least five people have died.
Barbara Dunne, whose son Robert died after a teenager punctured his heart with an imitation samurai blade in 2003, told the BBC that, "It's an achievement to get the weapons banned. I don't want children to keep seeing them in shop windows and thinking it's normal."
The law is to come into force from April 2008.
