Tag Archives: capital punishment

A very disappointing news from Japan…

There has still been no wide and open debate on the issue of death penalty in Japan, but executions are being carried out…

Statements from various organizations ensued. Read the statements by Japan Federation of Bar Associations, Center for Prisoner’s Rights, and Amnesty Japan (in Japanese).

Read about the death penalty issues in Japan here and here.

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Here is an article on Friday’s executions by Japan Times staff writer Mizuho Aoki:

Two death-row inmates were hanged Friday, in Tokyo and Osaka, in the second round of executions this year after three men went to the gallows in March.

Friday’s hangings were the first ordered by Justice Minister Makoto Taki, who assumed the post June 4. Prisoners on death row now number 130.

Junya Hattori, 40, and Kyozo Matsumura, 31, were hanged because “there was no uncertainty surrounding their convictions,” said Taki, who supports the death sentence.

Hattori, who was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House, raped a 19-year-old university student in the city of Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture, in his car and burned her to death in January 2002.

Matsumura was executed in the Osaka Detention House for the robbery-murders of a 57-year-old aunt in the city of Nagaokakyo, Kyoto Prefecture, and a 72-year-old uncle in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, within eight days in January 2007.

“I signed documents authorizing the executions after carefully considering each case,” Taki told journalists Friday afternoon.

“As I said when I assumed the post, unless there is any uncertainty concerning a conviction, a justice minister should respect the trial process and the decision of the court,” he said. Continue reading →