Capital punishment in Japan
Encyclopedia
Capital punishment
is legal in Japan
. The only crimes for which capital punishment is statutory are homicide
and treason
. Between 1946 and 1993, Japanese courts sentenced 766 people to death (including a small number from People's Republic of China
, South Korea
and Indonesia
), 608 of whom were executed. The death penalty is ordinarily imposed in cases of multiple murders involving aggravating factors.
, cruel punishments and the death penalty were used less and less, likely as a result of the influence of Buddhist
teachings, and the death penalty was phased out completely in the Heian period
. The death penalty was not used for the next 300 years, until the Genpei War
. During the following Kamakura period
, capital punishment was widely used and methods of execution became increasingly cruel, and included burning, boiling and crucifixion
, among many others. During the Muromachi period
, even harsher methods of execution came into use, such as upside down crucifixion, impalement
by spear, sawing, and dismemberment
with oxen or carts. Even minor offenses could be punished by death, and family members and even neighbors could be punished along with the offender. These harsh methods, and liberal use of the death penalty, continued throughout the Edo period
and into the early Meiji period
, but due to the influence of Confucianism
, offenses against masters and elders were increasingly punished much more harshly than offenses against those of lower rank. Torture
was used to extract confessions. In 1871, as the result of a major reform of the penal code, the number of crimes punishable by death was decreased and excessively cruel torture and flogging were abolished. In 1873, another revision resulted in a further reduction in the number of crimes punishable by death, and methods of execution were restricted to beheading or hanging.
, a 19-year-old from a disadvantaged background, who committed four murders in 1968 and was finally hanged
in 1997.
The supreme court of Japan, in imposing the death penalty, ruled that the death penalty may be imposed "inevitably" in consideration of the degree of criminal liability and balance of justice based on a nine-point set of criteria. Though technically not a precedent, this guideline has been followed by all subsequent capital cases in Japan. The nine criteria are as follows:
. However, the period requesting retrial or pardon is exempt from this regulation. Therefore, in practice, the typical stay on death row is between five and seven years; a quarter of the prisoners have been on death row for over ten years. For several, the stay has been over 30 years (Sadamichi Hirasawa
died of natural causes at the age of 95, after awaiting execution for 32 years).
, the entire records of trial are sent to the office of prosecution. Based on these records, the chief prosecutor of the office of prosecution compiles a report to the Justice Minister. This report is examined by the officer in the Criminal Investigation Bureau of Justice Ministry for the possibility of pardon and/or retrial as well as any possible legal issues which might require consideration before the execution is approved. This officer is usually from the office of prosecutors. Once satisfied, the officer will write an execution proposal, which has to go through the approval process of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, Parole Bureau and Correction Bureau. If the convict is certified to be mentally incapacitated during this process, the proposal is brought back to Criminal Investigation Bureau. The final approval is signed by the Minister of Justice. Once the final approval is signed, the execution will take place within about a week.
By the regulation of penal code section 71, clause 2, the execution cannot take place on a national holiday, Saturday, Sunday, or between December 31 and January 2. The date of execution is kept secret, even to the family of the condemned and the family of the victim(s).
s of Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo
, Nagoya, Osaka
, Hiroshima
and Fukuoka
(despite the city having a high court, Takamatsu
Detention Centre is not equipped with an execution chamber. Consequently, executions administered by the Takamatsu High Court are carried out in the Osaka detention center). Those on death row are not classified as prisoners by the Japanese justice system and the facilities they are held at are not referred to as prisons. Inmates lack many of the rights afforded to other Japanese prisoners. The nature of the regime they live under is largely up to the director of the Detention Center, but it is usually significantly harsher than normal Japanese prisons. Inmates are held under solitary confinement and are forbidden from communicating with their fellows. They are permitted two periods of exercise a week. They are not allowed televisions and may only possess three books. Prisoners are not allowed to exercise within their own cells. Prison visits, both by family members and legal representatives, are infrequent and closely supervised.
in a death chamber within the Detention Center. When a death order has been issued, the condemned prisoner is informed in the morning of his or her execution. The condemned is given a choice of the last meal. The prisoner's family and legal representatives are not informed until afterwards. Since December 7, 2007, the authorities have been releasing the names, natures of crime and ages of executed prisoners.
As of late January 2009, there were 95 people awaiting execution in Japan. Tsutomu Miyazaki
and two others were hanged on June 17, 2008. A total of nine convicted murderers were executed in 2007. Three men were executed on August 23, 2007, four men were executed on December 25, 2006, one execution was carried out in 2005 and two in 2004.
According to media reports, 4 death-row inmates were executed in Tokyo, Nagoya and Fukuoka in January 2009. A further 3 were hanged on July 31 bringing the total to 7 in 2009. Two inmates were executed in July 2010.
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
, which forbid any execution for crimes committed under the age of 18, Japan sets the minimum age for capital punishment at 18 (Juvenile Law § 51). Although death sentences for minors (defined in Japan as those under age 20) are rare, those who commit capital crimes at age 18 or 19 may be legally sentenced to death.
Nine juvenile criminals have received death sentences that were finalized since 1966: Misao Katagiri
, Kiyoshi Watanabe, Mitsuo Sasanuma, Fumio Matsuki, Sumio Kanno, Tsuneo Kuroiwa, Norio Nagayama
, Teruhiko Seki and Takayuki Mizujiri. Seven of them have already been executed. Watanabe and Seki, both of whom killed four people when they were 19 years old, are still on death row.
The most recent juvenile death sentence was given to Takayuki Fukuda, passed by the Hiroshima High Court on April 22, 2008. A month after his 18th birthday he raped and killed a mother, along with murdering her baby. He appealed to the Supreme Court and is waiting for its final and conclusive judgment.
During the late 1980s, four high-profile acquittals of death-row inmates after retrial "shook public confidence in the system and profoundly embarrassed the Ministry of Justice, which until then had believed that the execution of an innocent person was all but impossible". Between 1989 and 1993, four successive ministers of justice refused to authorize executions, which amounted to an informal moratorium
. Until then, the groups campaigning to end capital punishment were marginal but they coalesced into a single umbrella organization called Forum 90. Unlike in the U.S., where a state's governor can issue a pardon for any state crime and the president can pardon a federal crime, in Japan, the Justice Minister has to sign death warrants. It is not uncommon for a Justice minister not to sign death warrants, some for political or religious convictions, others for personal dislike for signing death warrants. This has caused some debate in Japan, some accusing those justice ministers of neglecting their public duty. For example, Seiken Sugiura
, Minister of Justice between October 2005 and September 2006, and a follower of Pureland Buddhism, publicly stated on October 31, 2005 that he would not sign execution warrants. He said that "From the standpoint of the theory of civilizations, I believe that the general trend from a long-term perspective will be to move toward abolition." A few hours later, he retracted the statement, saying it represented his "feelings as an individual and (the comment) was not made in relation to the duties and responsibilities of a justice minister who must oversee the legal system". However, he never agreed to any executions as a Minister of Justice.
The Times claimed that the death penalty was effectively suspended on September 17, 2009 with the appointment of Keiko Chiba
as Minister of Justice
. However, no official policy statement was made in this regard. Chiba only stated that "I will cautiously handle (the cases) based on the duties of the justice minister." The Times' speculation was conclusively disproved when Chiba signed two death warrants and personally witnessed the execution.http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100728x1.html
, who engaged in rape and necrophilia
, was cited by the Diet as an example of a murderer whose crimes were atrocious enough to merit execution. However, it is more due to the rarity of extreme crimes in Japanese society rather than an unwillingness of the authorities to carry out executions that has caused so few executions to take place.
Since executions resumed in 1993, a rise in street crime during the 1990s, the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway
in 1995 and several high-profile murders have hardened attitudes amongst the public and the judiciary. Since 1999, there have been a series of cases in which criminals sentenced to life imprisonment have been given the death penalty after prosecutors successfully appealed to High courts.
On March 18, 2009, a district court sentenced to death two men for the murder of Rie Isogai
. Fumiko Isogai, who lost her only child in this crime, launched a campaign to call for the death penalty on the three murderers in September 2007. Within ten days, her petition was signed by 100,000 citizens. She presented her petition for the death penalty with some 150,000 signatures to the District Public Prosecutors' Office of Nagoya on 23 October 2007. About 318,000 citizens had signed her petition by December 2008.
Although single murderers rarely face a death penalty in Japan, Takeshi Tsuchimoto, a criminal law
scholar at Hakuoh University
and former prosecutor
s of the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office, expected that the recent trend toward harsher punishments, backed by the growing public support for capital punishment, would encourage the court to sentence Kanda and Hori to death. Major national newspapers published editorials in support of this unorthodox judgment on the premise that capital punishment is retained. The Asahi Shimbun
and the Mainichi Shimbun
wrote in editorials that the general public favored the judgment, and the Nikkei
lended his support to it. The Sankei Shimbun
aggressively evaluated the judgment with a phrase "a natural and down-to-earth judgment of great significance." The Tokyo Shimbun
expressed that capital punishment would be the inevitable sentence in consideration of the brutality of the murder and the pain that the victim's family felt. They also noted, however, that it would be difficult for citizen judges to determine whether death penalty would be appropriate in this kind of case under the lay judge system
, which will be started in May 2009. Hiroshi Itakura, a criminal law scholar at Nihon University
said that this decision could be a new criterion for capital punishment under the lay judge system.
argues that the Japanese justice system tends to place great reliance on confessions, even ones obtained under duress. According to a 2005 Amnesty International report:
Amnesty also reports allegations of abuse of suspects during these interrogations. There are reports of physical abuse, sleep deprivation and denial of food, water and use of a toilet. One of its biggest criticisms is that inmates usually remain for years (and sometimes decades) on death row without ever actually being informed of the date of their execution prior to the date itself, so inmates suffer due to the uncertainty of not knowing whether or not any given day will be their last. According to Amnesty International, the intense and prolonged stress means many inmates on death row have poor mental health, suffering from the so called death row phenomenon
. The failure to give advanced notice of executions has been stated by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to be incompatible with articles 2, 7, 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
.
South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre claims that the issue of death warrants by the Ministry of Justice may be politically motivated — in 1997, Norio Nagayama
, a prisoner who committed the first of several murders as a juvenile was executed during the sentencing phase of Sakakibara Seito, whose case was another high-profile juvenile murder trial - an attempt, according to South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, to show that the harshest punishment could be administered to juveniles. According to The New York Times
, the execution of Tsutomu Miyazaki
after the Akihabara massacre
was claimed to be a similar case.
Note : Inmates noted with a * were sentenced to death for murder(s) committed while on parole for another murder
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
is legal in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The only crimes for which capital punishment is statutory are homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
and treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
. Between 1946 and 1993, Japanese courts sentenced 766 people to death (including a small number from People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
), 608 of whom were executed. The death penalty is ordinarily imposed in cases of multiple murders involving aggravating factors.
History
Beginning in about the fourth century, Japan became increasingly influenced by the Chinese judicial system, and gradually adopted a system of different punishments for different crimes, including the death penalty. However, beginning in the Nara periodNara period
The of the history of Japan covers the years from AD 710 to 794. Empress Gemmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō . Except for 5 years , when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capital of Japanese civilization until Emperor Kammu established a new capital, Nagaoka-kyō, in 784...
, cruel punishments and the death penalty were used less and less, likely as a result of the influence of Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
teachings, and the death penalty was phased out completely in the Heian period
Heian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
. The death penalty was not used for the next 300 years, until the Genpei War
Genpei War
The was a conflict between the Taira and Minamoto clans during the late-Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the fall of the Taira clan and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto Yoritomo in 1192....
. During the following Kamakura period
Kamakura period
The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....
, capital punishment was widely used and methods of execution became increasingly cruel, and included burning, boiling and crucifixion
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
, among many others. During the Muromachi period
Muromachi period
The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate, which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration of imperial...
, even harsher methods of execution came into use, such as upside down crucifixion, impalement
Impalement
Impalement is the traumatic penetration of an organism by an elongated foreign object such as a stake, pole, or spear, and this usually implies complete perforation of the central mass of the impaled body...
by spear, sawing, and dismemberment
Dismemberment
Dismemberment is the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing, the limbs of a living thing. It may be practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, as a result of a traumatic accident, or in connection with murder, suicide, or cannibalism...
with oxen or carts. Even minor offenses could be punished by death, and family members and even neighbors could be punished along with the offender. These harsh methods, and liberal use of the death penalty, continued throughout the Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
and into the early Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
, but due to the influence of Confucianism
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
, offenses against masters and elders were increasingly punished much more harshly than offenses against those of lower rank. Torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
was used to extract confessions. In 1871, as the result of a major reform of the penal code, the number of crimes punishable by death was decreased and excessively cruel torture and flogging were abolished. In 1873, another revision resulted in a further reduction in the number of crimes punishable by death, and methods of execution were restricted to beheading or hanging.
Sentencing guideline - Nagayama Standard
In Japan, the courts follow guidelines laid down in the trial of Norio NagayamaNorio Nagayama
was a Japanese spree killer and novelist.-Biography:Nagayama was born in Abashiri, Hokkaidō and grew up in a broken home. He moved to Tokyo in 1965 and, while working in Tokyo's Shibuya district, witnessed the Zama and Shibuya shootings....
, a 19-year-old from a disadvantaged background, who committed four murders in 1968 and was finally hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
in 1997.
The supreme court of Japan, in imposing the death penalty, ruled that the death penalty may be imposed "inevitably" in consideration of the degree of criminal liability and balance of justice based on a nine-point set of criteria. Though technically not a precedent, this guideline has been followed by all subsequent capital cases in Japan. The nine criteria are as follows:
- Degree of viciousness
- Motive
- How the crime was committed; especially the manner in which the victim was killed.
- Outcome of the crime; especially the number of victims.
- Sentiments of the bereaved family members.
- Impact of the crime on Japanese society.
- Defendant's age (in Japan, someone is a minor until the age of 20).
- Defendant's previous criminal record.
- Degree of remorse shown by the defendant.
Stays of execution
According to Article 475 of the 'Japanese Code of Criminal Procedure', the death penalty must be executed within six months after the failure of the prisoner's final appeal upon an order from the Minister of JusticeMinistry of Justice (Japan)
The is one of Ministries of the Japanese government.-Meiji Constitution:The Ministry of Justice was established under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan in 1871 as the .-Constitution of Japan:...
. However, the period requesting retrial or pardon is exempt from this regulation. Therefore, in practice, the typical stay on death row is between five and seven years; a quarter of the prisoners have been on death row for over ten years. For several, the stay has been over 30 years (Sadamichi Hirasawa
Sadamichi Hirasawa
was a Japanese tempera painter. He was convicted of mass poisoning and sentenced to death, though he is suspected to have been falsely charged and no justice minister signed his death warrant.-Teigin case:...
died of natural causes at the age of 95, after awaiting execution for 32 years).
Approval process
After the failure of the final appeal process to the Supreme Court of JapanSupreme Court of Japan
The Supreme Court of Japan , located in Chiyoda, Tokyo is the highest court in Japan. It has ultimate judicial authority to interpret the Japanese constitution and decide questions of national law...
, the entire records of trial are sent to the office of prosecution. Based on these records, the chief prosecutor of the office of prosecution compiles a report to the Justice Minister. This report is examined by the officer in the Criminal Investigation Bureau of Justice Ministry for the possibility of pardon and/or retrial as well as any possible legal issues which might require consideration before the execution is approved. This officer is usually from the office of prosecutors. Once satisfied, the officer will write an execution proposal, which has to go through the approval process of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, Parole Bureau and Correction Bureau. If the convict is certified to be mentally incapacitated during this process, the proposal is brought back to Criminal Investigation Bureau. The final approval is signed by the Minister of Justice. Once the final approval is signed, the execution will take place within about a week.
By the regulation of penal code section 71, clause 2, the execution cannot take place on a national holiday, Saturday, Sunday, or between December 31 and January 2. The date of execution is kept secret, even to the family of the condemned and the family of the victim(s).
Death row
Japanese death row inmates are imprisoned inside the detention centerDetention center
A detention center or a detention centre is any location used for detention. Specifically, it can mean:*A jail or prison*A structure for immigration detention*An internment camp or concentration camp...
s of Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Nagoya, Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
, Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
and Fukuoka
Fukuoka, Fukuoka
is the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture and is situated on the northern shore of the island of Kyushu in Japan.Voted number 14 in a 2010 poll of the World's Most Livable Cities, Fukuoka is praised for its green spaces in a metropolitan setting. It is the most populous city in Kyushu, followed by...
(despite the city having a high court, Takamatsu
Takamatsu, Kagawa
is a city located in central Kagawa Prefecture on the island of Shikoku in Japan, and is the seat of the prefectural government. It is designated a core city by the Japanese Government. It is a port city located on the Seto Inland Sea, and is the closest port to Honshu from Shikoku island...
Detention Centre is not equipped with an execution chamber. Consequently, executions administered by the Takamatsu High Court are carried out in the Osaka detention center). Those on death row are not classified as prisoners by the Japanese justice system and the facilities they are held at are not referred to as prisons. Inmates lack many of the rights afforded to other Japanese prisoners. The nature of the regime they live under is largely up to the director of the Detention Center, but it is usually significantly harsher than normal Japanese prisons. Inmates are held under solitary confinement and are forbidden from communicating with their fellows. They are permitted two periods of exercise a week. They are not allowed televisions and may only possess three books. Prisoners are not allowed to exercise within their own cells. Prison visits, both by family members and legal representatives, are infrequent and closely supervised.
Execution
Executions are carried out by hangingHanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
in a death chamber within the Detention Center. When a death order has been issued, the condemned prisoner is informed in the morning of his or her execution. The condemned is given a choice of the last meal. The prisoner's family and legal representatives are not informed until afterwards. Since December 7, 2007, the authorities have been releasing the names, natures of crime and ages of executed prisoners.
As of late January 2009, there were 95 people awaiting execution in Japan. Tsutomu Miyazaki
Tsutomu Miyazaki
, also known as The Otaku Murderer, The Little Girl Murderer, and Dracula, was a Japanese serial killer.-Background:Planaria's premature birth left him with deformed hands, which were permanently gnarled and fused directly to the wrists, necessitating him to move his entire forearm in order to...
and two others were hanged on June 17, 2008. A total of nine convicted murderers were executed in 2007. Three men were executed on August 23, 2007, four men were executed on December 25, 2006, one execution was carried out in 2005 and two in 2004.
According to media reports, 4 death-row inmates were executed in Tokyo, Nagoya and Fukuoka in January 2009. A further 3 were hanged on July 31 bringing the total to 7 in 2009. Two inmates were executed in July 2010.
Death sentences for minors
Having signed both the Convention on the Rights of the ChildConvention on the Rights of the Child
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children...
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976...
, which forbid any execution for crimes committed under the age of 18, Japan sets the minimum age for capital punishment at 18 (Juvenile Law § 51). Although death sentences for minors (defined in Japan as those under age 20) are rare, those who commit capital crimes at age 18 or 19 may be legally sentenced to death.
Nine juvenile criminals have received death sentences that were finalized since 1966: Misao Katagiri
Misao Katagiri
The Zama and Shibuya shootings were the double spree shootings in Japan on July 29, 1965 by , which left one police officer dead and 17 people injured, but he was finally captured by police officers. Katagiri was later executed by Japan....
, Kiyoshi Watanabe, Mitsuo Sasanuma, Fumio Matsuki, Sumio Kanno, Tsuneo Kuroiwa, Norio Nagayama
Norio Nagayama
was a Japanese spree killer and novelist.-Biography:Nagayama was born in Abashiri, Hokkaidō and grew up in a broken home. He moved to Tokyo in 1965 and, while working in Tokyo's Shibuya district, witnessed the Zama and Shibuya shootings....
, Teruhiko Seki and Takayuki Mizujiri. Seven of them have already been executed. Watanabe and Seki, both of whom killed four people when they were 19 years old, are still on death row.
The most recent juvenile death sentence was given to Takayuki Fukuda, passed by the Hiroshima High Court on April 22, 2008. A month after his 18th birthday he raped and killed a mother, along with murdering her baby. He appealed to the Supreme Court and is waiting for its final and conclusive judgment.
Public debate
Although the public has generally supported the death penalty, capital punishment is a contentious issue in Japan nonetheless. A 1999 government survey found that 79.3 percent of the public supported it. In 34 polls taken between 1953 and 1999, support for the death penalty has varied, although never having dropped below 50 percent. At a 2003 trial, a Tokyo prosecutor presented the court a petition with 76,000 signatures as part of his case for a death sentence.During the late 1980s, four high-profile acquittals of death-row inmates after retrial "shook public confidence in the system and profoundly embarrassed the Ministry of Justice, which until then had believed that the execution of an innocent person was all but impossible". Between 1989 and 1993, four successive ministers of justice refused to authorize executions, which amounted to an informal moratorium
UN moratorium on the death penalty
The UN moratorium on the death penalty were two proposals by Italy and Chile supported by several countries and NGOs before the General Assembly of the United Nations that called for general suspension of capital punishment throughout the world...
. Until then, the groups campaigning to end capital punishment were marginal but they coalesced into a single umbrella organization called Forum 90. Unlike in the U.S., where a state's governor can issue a pardon for any state crime and the president can pardon a federal crime, in Japan, the Justice Minister has to sign death warrants. It is not uncommon for a Justice minister not to sign death warrants, some for political or religious convictions, others for personal dislike for signing death warrants. This has caused some debate in Japan, some accusing those justice ministers of neglecting their public duty. For example, Seiken Sugiura
Seiken Sugiura
Seiken Sugiura is a Japanese politician. He was named Minister of Justice on October 31, 2005 and served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Being a Buddhist, he imposed a moratorium on executions during his time as Justice Minister...
, Minister of Justice between October 2005 and September 2006, and a follower of Pureland Buddhism, publicly stated on October 31, 2005 that he would not sign execution warrants. He said that "From the standpoint of the theory of civilizations, I believe that the general trend from a long-term perspective will be to move toward abolition." A few hours later, he retracted the statement, saying it represented his "feelings as an individual and (the comment) was not made in relation to the duties and responsibilities of a justice minister who must oversee the legal system". However, he never agreed to any executions as a Minister of Justice.
The Times claimed that the death penalty was effectively suspended on September 17, 2009 with the appointment of Keiko Chiba
Keiko Chiba
is the former justice minister of Japan.- Former career :After graduating from Chuo University in 1971, where she studied law, she became a lawyer in 1982. She belongs to the Yokohama Bar Association. As a lawyer, she was involved in a lawsuit filed by local residents over noise pollution caused by...
as Minister of Justice
Minister of Justice (Japan)
The is the member of the Cabinet of Japan in charge of the Ministry of Justice. The post has been held by Hideo Hiraoka since 2 September 2011.- Ministers of Justice :...
. However, no official policy statement was made in this regard. Chiba only stated that "I will cautiously handle (the cases) based on the duties of the justice minister." The Times' speculation was conclusively disproved when Chiba signed two death warrants and personally witnessed the execution.http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100728x1.html
Support
Supporters say that capital punishment is applied infrequently and only to those who have committed the most extreme of crimes—a single act of murder does not attract the capital punishment without additional aggravating circumstances such as rape or robbery. In the 1956 debate, Japanese serial killer Genzo KuritaGenzo Kurita
was a Japanese serial killer, who murdered eight people.- Murders :Kurita murdered two girlfriends in February 1948. On August 8, 1951, he raped and murdered a 24-year-old woman beside her baby. He then had sex with her corpse....
, who engaged in rape and necrophilia
Necrophilia
Necrophilia, also called thanatophilia or necrolagnia, is the sexual attraction to corpses,It is classified as a paraphilia by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The word is artificially derived from the ancient Greek words: νεκρός and φιλία...
, was cited by the Diet as an example of a murderer whose crimes were atrocious enough to merit execution. However, it is more due to the rarity of extreme crimes in Japanese society rather than an unwillingness of the authorities to carry out executions that has caused so few executions to take place.
Since executions resumed in 1993, a rise in street crime during the 1990s, the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway
Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway
The Sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, usually referred to in the Japanese media as the , was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by members of Aum Shinrikyo on March 20, 1995....
in 1995 and several high-profile murders have hardened attitudes amongst the public and the judiciary. Since 1999, there have been a series of cases in which criminals sentenced to life imprisonment have been given the death penalty after prosecutors successfully appealed to High courts.
On March 18, 2009, a district court sentenced to death two men for the murder of Rie Isogai
Murder of Rie Isogai
was a 31-year-old Japanese office clerk who was robbed and murdered in Aichi Prefecture, Japan on the night of 24 August 2007 by three men who became acquainted through an underground message board...
. Fumiko Isogai, who lost her only child in this crime, launched a campaign to call for the death penalty on the three murderers in September 2007. Within ten days, her petition was signed by 100,000 citizens. She presented her petition for the death penalty with some 150,000 signatures to the District Public Prosecutors' Office of Nagoya on 23 October 2007. About 318,000 citizens had signed her petition by December 2008.
Although single murderers rarely face a death penalty in Japan, Takeshi Tsuchimoto, a criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
scholar at Hakuoh University
Hakuoh University
is a private university in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan.The name Hakuoh, meaning 'white seagull', and the motto plus ultra, or 'more beyond', are intended to inspire students to soar to their fullest potential...
and former prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
s of the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office, expected that the recent trend toward harsher punishments, backed by the growing public support for capital punishment, would encourage the court to sentence Kanda and Hori to death. Major national newspapers published editorials in support of this unorthodox judgment on the premise that capital punishment is retained. The Asahi Shimbun
Asahi Shimbun
The is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 7.96 million for its morning edition and 3.1 million for its evening edition as of June 2010, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun...
and the Mainichi Shimbun
Mainichi Shimbun
The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by .-History:The history of the Mainichi Shimbun begins with founding of two papers during the Meiji period. The Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun was founded first, in 1872. The Mainichi claims that it is the oldest existing Japanese daily newspaper...
wrote in editorials that the general public favored the judgment, and the Nikkei
Nihon Keizai Shimbun
is one of the largest media corporations in Japan. Nikkei specializes in publishing financial, business and industry news. Its main news publications include:* Nihon Keizai Shimbun , a leading economic newspaper....
lended his support to it. The Sankei Shimbun
Sankei Shimbun
is a daily newspaper in Japan published by the . It has the sixth highest circulation for a newspaper in Japan, and is considered as one of the five "national" newspapers...
aggressively evaluated the judgment with a phrase "a natural and down-to-earth judgment of great significance." The Tokyo Shimbun
Tokyo Shimbun
The Tokyo Shimbun is a Japanese newspaper published by The Chunichi Shimbun Company. The group publishes newspapers under the brand name of The Tokyo Shimbun in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area and under The Chunichi Shimbun in the Nagoya Metropolitan Area. The group’s combined daily morning...
expressed that capital punishment would be the inevitable sentence in consideration of the brutality of the murder and the pain that the victim's family felt. They also noted, however, that it would be difficult for citizen judges to determine whether death penalty would be appropriate in this kind of case under the lay judge system
Juries in Japan
Lay judges in Japan were first introduced to in 1923, led by Prime Minister Kato Tomosaburo. Although the system generated relatively high acquittal rates, it was rarely used, in part because it required defendants to give up their rights to appeal of the factual determinations made. The system...
, which will be started in May 2009. Hiroshi Itakura, a criminal law scholar at Nihon University
Nihon University
Nihon University is the largest university in Japan. Akiyoshi Yamada, the minister of justice, founded Nihon Law School in October 1889....
said that this decision could be a new criterion for capital punishment under the lay judge system.
Criticism
Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
argues that the Japanese justice system tends to place great reliance on confessions, even ones obtained under duress. According to a 2005 Amnesty International report:
- Most have been sentenced to death on the basis of confessions extracted under duress. The potential for miscarriages of justice is built into the system: confessions are typically extracted while suspects are held in daiyo kangokuDaiyo kangokuDaiyo kangoku is a Japanese legal term meaning "substitute prison." Daiyō kangoku are detention cells found in police stations which are used as legal substitutes for detention centers, or prisons...
, or "substitute prisons", for interrogation before they are charged. In practice these are police cells, where detainees can be held for up to 23 days after arrest, with no state-funded legal representation. They are typically interrogated for 12 hours a day: no lawyers can be present, no recordings are made, and they are put under constant pressure to confess. Once convicted, it is very difficult to obtain a re-trial and prisoners can remain under sentence of death for many years.
Amnesty also reports allegations of abuse of suspects during these interrogations. There are reports of physical abuse, sleep deprivation and denial of food, water and use of a toilet. One of its biggest criticisms is that inmates usually remain for years (and sometimes decades) on death row without ever actually being informed of the date of their execution prior to the date itself, so inmates suffer due to the uncertainty of not knowing whether or not any given day will be their last. According to Amnesty International, the intense and prolonged stress means many inmates on death row have poor mental health, suffering from the so called death row phenomenon
Death row phenomenon
The death row phenomenon, also known as the death row syndrome, is a term used to refer to the emotional distress felt by prisoners on death row. Concerns about the ethics of inflicting this distress upon prisoners have led to some legal concerns about the constitutionality of the death penalty in...
. The failure to give advanced notice of executions has been stated by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to be incompatible with articles 2, 7, 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976...
.
South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre claims that the issue of death warrants by the Ministry of Justice may be politically motivated — in 1997, Norio Nagayama
Norio Nagayama
was a Japanese spree killer and novelist.-Biography:Nagayama was born in Abashiri, Hokkaidō and grew up in a broken home. He moved to Tokyo in 1965 and, while working in Tokyo's Shibuya district, witnessed the Zama and Shibuya shootings....
, a prisoner who committed the first of several murders as a juvenile was executed during the sentencing phase of Sakakibara Seito, whose case was another high-profile juvenile murder trial - an attempt, according to South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, to show that the harshest punishment could be administered to juveniles. According to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, the execution of Tsutomu Miyazaki
Tsutomu Miyazaki
, also known as The Otaku Murderer, The Little Girl Murderer, and Dracula, was a Japanese serial killer.-Background:Planaria's premature birth left him with deformed hands, which were permanently gnarled and fused directly to the wrists, necessitating him to move his entire forearm in order to...
after the Akihabara massacre
Akihabara massacre
The was an incident of mass murder that took place on Sunday, June 8, 2008, in the Akihabara shopping quarter for electronics, video games and comics in Sotokanda, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan.At 12:33 p.m...
was claimed to be a similar case.
Executions since 1993
| Inmate | Age | Date | Place | Crime | victim(s) | Minister |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seikichi Kondo | 55 | March 26, 1993 | Sendai | Multiple murders | 2 | Masaharu Gotoda |
| Shujiro Tachikawa | 62 | March 26, 1993 | Osaka Osaka is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe... |
Multiple murders | 2 | Masaharu Gotoda |
| Tetsuo Kawanaka | 48 | March 26, 1993 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 3 | Masaharu Gotoda |
| Tadao Kojima | 61 | November 26, 1993 | Sapporo | Multiple murders | 3 | Akira Mikazuki |
| Yukio Seki | 37 | November 26, 1993 | Tokyo Tokyo , ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family... |
1 | Akira Mikazuki | |
| Hideo Deguchi | 70 | November 26, 1993 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 2 | Akira Mikazuki |
| Toru Sakaguchi | 57 | November 26, 1993 | Osaka | Akira Mikazuki | ||
| Yukio Ajima | 44 | December 1, 1994 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 3 | Isao Maeda |
| Kazumi Sasaki | 66 | December 1, 1994 | Sendai | Multiple murders* | 2 | Isao Maeda |
| Eiji Fujioka | 40 | May 26, 1995 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 2 | Isao Maeda |
| Fusao Suda | 54 | May 26, 1995 | Tokyo | 1 | Isao Maeda | |
| Shigeho Tanaka | 69 | May 26, 1995 | Tokyo | 1 | Isao Maeda | |
| Shuji Kimura | 45 | December 21, 1995 | Nagoya | 1 | Hiroshi Miyazawa Hiroshi Miyazawa was the Governor of Hiroshima Prefecture from 1973 to 1981. He is the younger brother of Kiichi Miyazawa.Was elected as Governor of Hiroshima in December 1973 on behalf of the Liberal Democratic Party, and defeated the Japanese Communist Party candidate Noriaki Yamada... |
|
| Naoto Hirata | 63 | December 21, 1995 | Fukuoka Fukuoka, Fukuoka is the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture and is situated on the northern shore of the island of Kyushu in Japan.Voted number 14 in a 2010 poll of the World's Most Livable Cities, Fukuoka is praised for its green spaces in a metropolitan setting. It is the most populous city in Kyushu, followed by... |
Multiple murders | 2 | Hiroshi Miyazawa |
| Tokujirou Shinohara | 68 | December 21, 1995 | Tokyo | Multiple murders* | 2 | Hiroshi Miyazawa |
| Yoshiaki Sugimto | 49 | July 11, 1996 | Fukuoka | 1 | Ritsuko Nagata | |
| Kazumi Yokoyama | 43 | July 11, 1996 | Fukuoka | Ritsuko Nagata | ||
| Mikio Ishida | 48 | July 11, 1996 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 2 | Ritsuko Nagata |
| Yoshihito Imai | 55 | December 20, 1996 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 3 | Isao Matsuura |
| Mitsunari Hirata | 60 | December 20, 1996 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 2 | Isao Matsuura |
| Satoru Noguchi | 50 | December 20, 1996 | Tokyo | Isao Matsuura | ||
| Yasumasa Hidaka | 54 | August 1, 1997 | Sapporo | Multiple murders | 6 | Isao Matsuura |
| Nobuko Hidaka | 51 | August 1, 1997 | Sapporo | Isao Matsuura | ||
| Hideki Kanda | 43 | August 1, 1997 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 3 | Isao Matsuura |
| Norio Nagayama Norio Nagayama was a Japanese spree killer and novelist.-Biography:Nagayama was born in Abashiri, Hokkaidō and grew up in a broken home. He moved to Tokyo in 1965 and, while working in Tokyo's Shibuya district, witnessed the Zama and Shibuya shootings.... |
48 | August 1, 1997 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 4 | Isao Matsuura |
| Masahiro Muratake | 54 | June 25, 1998 | Fukuoka | Multiple murders | 3 | Kokichi Shimoinaba |
| Yukihisa Takeyasu | 66 | June 25, 1998 | Fukuoka | Multiple murders* | 1 | Kokichi Shimoinaba |
| Shinji Shimazu | 66 | June 25, 1998 | Tokyo | Multiple murders* | 1 | Kokichi Shimoinaba |
| Masamichi Ida | 56 | November 19, 1998 | Nagoya | Multiple murders | 3 | Shozaburo Nakamura |
| Tatsuaki Nishio | 61 | November 19, 1998 | Nagoya | 1 | Shozaburo Nakamura | |
| Akira Tsuda | 59 | November 19, 1998 | Hiroshima Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M... |
1 | Shozaburo Nakamura | |
| Masashi Satou | 62 | September 10, 1999 | Tokyo | Multiple murders* | 1 | Takao Jinnouchi |
| Katsutoshi Takada | 61 | September 10, 1999 | Sendai | Multiple murders* | 1 | Takao Jinnouchi |
| Tetsuyuki Morikawa | 69 | September 10, 1999 | Fukuoka | Multiple murders* | 2 | Takao Jinnouchi |
| Teruo Ono | 62 | December 17, 1999 | Fukuoka | Multiple murders* | 1 | Hideo Usui Hideo Usui is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet . A native of Chiba, Chiba and graduate of Chuo University, he was elected for the first time in 1980 after an unsuccessful run in 1979.- External links :* in Japanese.... |
| Kazuo Sagawa | 48 | December 17, 1999 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 2 | Hideo Usui |
| Kiyotaka Katsuta Kiyotaka Katsuta was a Japanese serial killer and thief.-Biography:Katsuta committed several murders and robbed several houses before being apprehended. The exact number of murders he committed is unknown. He killed his victims by strangling and shooting them.... |
52 | November 30, 2000 | Nagoya | Multiple murders | 8 | Okiharu Yasuoka Okiharu Yasuoka is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party , a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet . A native of Kagoshima Prefecture and graduate of Chuo University, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1972 as an independent. He later joined the LDP... |
| Takashi Miyawaki | 57 | November 30, 2000 | Nagoya | Multiple murders | 3 | Okiharu Yasuoka |
| Kunikatsu Oishi | 55 | November 30, 2000 | Fukuoka | Multiple murders | 3 | Okiharu Yasuoka |
| Toshihiko Hasegawa | 51 | December 27, 2001 | Nagoya | Multiple murders | 3 | Mayumi Moriyama Mayumi Moriyama is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet . A native of Tokyo and graduate of the University of Tokyo she worked at the Ministry of Labor from 1950 to 1980... |
| Koujirou Asakura | 66 | December 27, 2001 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 5 | Mayumi Moriyama |
| Ryuya Haruta | 36 | September 18, 2002 | Fukuoka | 1 | Mayumi Moriyama | |
| Yoshiteru Hamada | 51 | September 18, 2002 | Nagoya | Multiple murders* | 3 | Mayumi Moriyama |
| Sinji Mukai | 42 | September 12, 2003 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 3 | Mayumi Moriyama |
| Sueo Shimazaki | 59 | September 14, 2004 | Fukuoka | Multiple murders | 3 | Daizo Nozawa Daizō Nozawa is a politician of Japan who served as the Justice Minister of Japan from 2003 to 2004.Nozawa graduated from University of Tokyo with the degree of bachelor of civil engineering and joined Japanese National Railways in 1956. During his career at JNR, he obtained the degree of Ph. D. He was first... |
| Mamoru Takuma Mamoru Takuma was a Japanese janitor who committed mass murder of 8 people and wounded 15 others in the 2001 Osaka school massacre. He had been convicted and imprisoned for rape before the massacre.- Early life :... |
40 | September 14, 2004 | Osaka | Mass murder | 8 | Daizo Nozawa |
| Susumu kitagawa | 58 | September 16, 2005 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 2 | Chieko Nono |
| Hiroaki Hidaka Hiroaki Hidaka was a Japanese serial killer.-Early life:Hidaka was born in the Miyazaki Prefecture. He was originally an excellent student, but he failed to enter the University of Tsukuba, his target college. He entered the Fukuoka University instead, but eventually dropped out. He often borrowed money, drank... |
44 | December 25, 2006 | Hiroshima | Multiple murders | 4 | Jinen Nagase Jinen Nagase is a Japanese politician who formerly served as Minister of Justice in the cabinet of Shinzō Abe.He was born in Toyama and obtained his LL.B. from the University of Tokyo. After graduation, he worked in the Ministry of Labour... |
| Yoshimitsu Akiyama | 77 | December 25, 2006 | Tokyo | 1 | Jinen Nagase | |
| Yoshio Fujinami | 65 | December 25, 2006 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 2 | Jinen Nagase |
| Michio Fukuoka | 64 | December 25, 2006 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 3 | Jinen Nagase |
| Yoshikatsu Oda | 59 | April 27, 2007 | Fukuoka | Multiple murders | 2 | Jinen Nagase |
| Masahiro Tanaka | 42 | April 27, 2007 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 4 | Jinen Nagase |
| Kosaku Nada | 56 | April 27, 2007 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 2 | Jinen Nagase |
| Hifumi Takezawa | 69 | August 24, 2007 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 3 | Jinen Nagase |
| Kozo Segawa | 60 | August 24, 2007 | Nagoya | Multiple murders | 2 | Jinen Nagase |
| Yoshio Iwamoto | 62 | August 24, 2007 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 2 | Jinen Nagase |
| Seiha Fujima | 47 | December 7, 2007 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 5 | Kunio Hatoyama Kunio Hatoyama is a Japanese politician who served as Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications under Prime Minister Taro Aso until June 12, 2009.- Biography :Kunio Hatoyama was born in Tokyo in 1948... |
| Hiroki Fukawa | 42 | December 7, 2007 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 2 | Kunio Hatoyama |
| Noboru Ikemoto | 75 | December 7, 2007 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 3 | Kunio Hatoyama |
| Masahiko Matsubara | 63 | February 1, 2008 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 2 | Kunio Hatoyama |
| Takashi Mochida | 65 | February 1, 2008 | Tokyo | Multiple murders* | 1 | Kunio Hatoyama |
| Keishi Nago | 37 | February 1, 2008 | Fukuoka | Multiple murders | 2 | Kunio Hatoyama |
| Kaoru Okashita | 61 | April 10, 2008 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 2 | Kunio Hatoyama |
| Masahito Sakamoto | 41 | April 10, 2008 | Tokyo | 1 | Kunio Hatoyama | |
| Katsuyoshi Nakamoto | 64 | April 10, 2008 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 2 | Kunio Hatoyama |
| Masaharu Nakamura | 61 | April 10, 2008 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 2 | Kunio Hatoyama |
| Tsutomu Miyazaki Tsutomu Miyazaki , also known as The Otaku Murderer, The Little Girl Murderer, and Dracula, was a Japanese serial killer.-Background:Planaria's premature birth left him with deformed hands, which were permanently gnarled and fused directly to the wrists, necessitating him to move his entire forearm in order to... |
45 | June 17, 2008 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 4 | Kunio Hatoyama |
| Yoshio Yamasaki | 73 | June 17, 2008 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 2 | Kunio Hatoyama |
| Shinji Mutsuda | 37 | June 17, 2008 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 2 | Kunio Hatoyama |
| Yoshiyuki Mantani | 68 | September 11, 2008 | Osaka | Multiple murders* | 1 | Okiharu Yasuoka |
| Mineteru Yamamoto | 68 | September 11, 2008 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 2 | Okiharu Yasuoka |
| Isamu Hirano | 61 | September 11, 2008 | Tokyo | Multiple murders* | 2 | Okiharu Yasuoka |
| Michitoshi Kuma | 70 | October 28, 2008 | Fukuoka | Multiple murders | 2 | Eisuke Mori Eisuke Mori is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party. He is a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet and is the former Minister of Justice under Aso's Administration.... |
| Masahiro Takashio | 55 | October 28, 2008 | Sendai | Multiple murders | 2 | Eisuke Mori |
| Yukinari Kawamura | 44 | January 28, 2009 | Nagoya | Multiple murders | 2 | Eisuke Mori |
| Tetsuya Sato | 39 | January 28, 2009 | Nagoya | Eisuke Mori | ||
| Shojiro Nishimoto | 32 | January 28, 2009 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 4 | Eisuke Mori |
| Tadashi Makino | 58 | January 28, 2009 | Fukuoka | Multiple murders* | 1 | Eisuke Mori |
| Hiroshi Maeue Hiroshi Maeue , aka "Suicide Website Murderer", was a Japanese serial killer, who lured his victims via the internet and killed three people in 2005.Maeue suffered from a paraphilic psychosexual disorder which translated into being unable to achieve sexual release absent of performing an act of... |
40 | July 28, 2009 | Osaka | Multiple murders | 3 | Eisuke Mori |
| Yukio Yamaji Yukio Yamaji was a Japanese triple killer. He murdered his own mother in 2000, and then murdered a 27-year-old woman and her 19-year-old sister in 2005.-Biography:Yamaji was born into a poor family and his father died of cirrhosis in January 1995... |
25 | July 28, 2009 | Osaka | Multiple murders* | 2 | Eisuke Mori |
| Chen Detong | 41 | July 28, 2009 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 3 | Eisuke Mori |
| Kazuo Shinozawa | 59 | July 28, 2010 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 6 | Keiko Chiba Keiko Chiba is the former justice minister of Japan.- Former career :After graduating from Chuo University in 1971, where she studied law, she became a lawyer in 1982. She belongs to the Yokohama Bar Association. As a lawyer, she was involved in a lawsuit filed by local residents over noise pollution caused by... |
| Hidenori Ogata | 33 | July 28, 2010 | Tokyo | Multiple murders | 2 | Keiko Chiba |
Note : Inmates noted with a * were sentenced to death for murder(s) committed while on parole for another murder
See also
- Law of Japan
- Criminal justice system of JapanCriminal justice system of JapanThree basic features of Japan's system of criminal justice characterize its operations. First, the institutions—police, government prosecutor's offices, courts, and correctional organs—maintain close and cooperative relations with each other, consulting frequently on how best to accomplish the...
- Judicial system of JapanJudicial system of JapanIn the judicial system of Japan, the postwar constitution guarantees that "all judges shall be independent in the exercise of their conscience and shall be bound only by this constitution and the Laws"...
- Human rights in JapanHuman rights in JapanJapan is a constitutional monarchy. According to Ministry of Justice figures, the Japanese Legal Affairs Bureau offices and civil liberties volunteers dealt with 359,971 human rights related complaints and 18,786 reports of suspected human rights violations during 2003...
- Criminal punishment in Edo-period JapanCriminal punishment in Edo-period JapanDuring the Edo period, Japan used various punishments against criminals. These can be categorized as follows:* Death penalty* Incarceration and Exile* Penal labor* Confiscation of property* Corporal punishment- Death penalty :...
Further information
- Daily Mail article on Tokyo death chamber, 2010
- Matsutani, Minoru, "Shedding light on death penalty", Japan Times, 28 August 2010, p. 2.