3 death row inmates hanged in Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka

Japan hanged three death row inmates Friday, the Justice Ministry said, in a rare move while parliament is in session. The executions, which came amid general calls for tougher punishment by crime victims but drew criticism by human rights activists, were the second set of multiple executions under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe following the hanging of four people in December.

The government usually refrains from executing people while parliament is sitting due to concern the action could affect deliberations on bills there.

The ministry did not disclose the names of those executed in accordance with normal practice. But judicial sources said the three were Yoshikatsu Oda, 59, who was hanged at the Fukuoka Detention House for the murders of two people, Masahiro Tanaka, 42, who was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House for the murders of four people, and Kosaku Nada, 56, executed at the Osaka Detention House for the murders of two people.

The executions, like those in December, were carried out on the orders of Justice Minister Jinen Nagase.

Nagase's predecessor, Seiken Sugiura, did not give the green light to any executions, citing his religious beliefs, during his 11 months in office through September last year, when Abe took office.

According to the ministry, the number of people under sentence of death who had exhausted all avenues of appeal or had not appealed topped 100 in March. With Friday's executions, the number dropped to 99.

There were no executions in Japan for three years and four months until March 1993, mainly due to the reluctance of justice ministers to issue execution orders. Since the resumption of hanging, 54 prisoners have been executed, including Friday's three.

Human rights group Amnesty International Japan on Friday lodged "a strong condemnation" of the government's executing the three inmates only four months after the previous hangings.

The Fukuoka District Court sentenced Oda to death in March 2000 for the murders of two people for insurance money in 1990 in Fukuoka Prefecture. The sentence was finalized because he retracted his appeal.

The Supreme Court in September 2000 dismissed Tanaka's appeal against the death sentence for the murders of four people for robbery or other reasons from 1984 to 1991 in Kagawa, Tokushima, Tokyo and Kanagawa prefectures, as well as other crimes.

The top court rejected Nada's appeal in September 1992 against the death sentence for the murders of two people for robbery in January 1983 in Hyogo Prefecture.