Japanese govt refuses to review the death penalty

Despite a proposal by legal experts, the Japanese government has ruled out setting up a commission to review capital punishment. The Cabinet Secretary cited public support for this penalty, but legal experts believe most Japanese are not adequately informed.

Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Japanese government yesterday rejected the possibility of a debate on the abolition of the death penalty, a day after a formal request for review was made by a group of legal experts and parliamentarians.

“The government believes that it is not appropriate to abolish the death penalty,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi. “It is unavoidable to impose the death penalty on those who commit violent crimes that carry an extremely grave responsibility,” he added, stressing that this reflects the will of most Japanese.

Legal experts believe, however, that public opinion polls are biased, because they were conducted without providing a series of important information on capital punishment.

On Wednesday, the 16-member panel, set up in February at the initiative of the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations, asked the Japanese parliament to establish a commission to determine whether to maintain the death penalty or not.

Citing the case of Iwao Hakamata, an 88-year-old man who spent nearly 50 years on death row before he was recently acquitted of the murder of four people, the panel’s request stressed that once a mistake is made, it takes a long time to correct it.

Chaired by Makoto Ida, a professor of criminal law at Chuo Law School, the panel noted that abolishing the death penalty is part of a global trend (in 70 per cent of countries no longer have it). Japan and the United States are the only G7 industrialised countries still imposing death sentences. The European Union and Amnesty International have also been putting pressure on Japan for some time.

The panel is in favour of a review, citing the amendment to Japan's Penal Code in 2022 to unify prison terms with and without labour, an important change from a system focused on punishment to one open to inmates’ rehabilitation and education.

Since 2000, 98 prisoners have been executed in Japan, the latest in 2022. Currently, about a hundred people are on death row, mostly for multiple or particularly serious crimes.

(photo: a detention centre with one of Japan's execution chambers, Wikimedia Commons)Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Japanese government yesterday rejected the possibility of a debate on the abolition of the death penalty, a day after a formal request for review was made by a group of legal experts and parliamentarians.

• japan
• death penalty
• review
• rejection
• abolition
• panel
• bar associations
• yoshimasa hayashi