3 death row inmates hanged in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka

Japan executed three death row inmates Friday, less than two months after hanging three others in December, showing its determination to continue executions despite international calls for a moratorium on the death penalty.
Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama held a news conference Friday morning to announce the names of the three inmates and where they were executed. "Each of the three inmates was convicted of killing their victims out of selfish motives and in a cruel manner. After making careful studies, I ordered the inmates to be hanged," Hatoyama said.
The nonpartisan Japan Parliamentary League against the Death Penalty protested against the executions. Group member Nobuto Hosaka, a House of Representatives member of the Social Democratic Party, told a news conference, "Barely two months have passed since the previous executions. Is it the start of a mass execution period? We lodge a stern protest."
Six death row inmates have been hanged since Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda assumed office in September and all of the executions have been ordered by Hatoyama. More than 100 inmates are currently on death row in Japan.
The three executed Friday were Takashi Mochida, 65, who was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House, Masahiko Matsubara, 63, who was hanged at the Osaka Detention House, and Keishi Nago, 37, who was hanged at the Fukuoka Detention House.
According to court rulings, Mochida stabbed a 44-year-old woman to death in Tokyo in April 1997, two months after he was released from prison. He killed the woman out of revenge because she had filed a report with the police accusing him of rape. Mochida served a seven-year prison term for the rape.
Matsubara was convicted of strangling a 61-year-old woman in Tokushima Prefecture in April 1988 and a 44-year-old woman in Aichi Prefecture in June the same year.
Nago was convicted of killing his 40-year-old sister-in-law and her daughter, 17, and wounding her son on Tokunoshima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, in August 2002.
Mochida spent three years and three months in prison after he was sentenced to death. Matsubara served 10 years and nine months in prison and Nago three years and five months.
On Thursday, the parliamentary league against the death penalty urged Hatoyama not to order the execution of death row inmates after the organization obtained information about imminent executions.
On Friday, Hosaka, the head of the league's secretariat, referred to the resolution calling for a moratorium on executions adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on Dec 18. "The Japanese government for its part is not supposed to take the resolution lightly but these executions are its reply. It is going against the world trend and information disclosure is insufficient."
Rights group Amnesty International Japan also issued a strong protest, saying that apart from the names of the executed, no other information has been disclosed and the executions were undertaken secretly as in the past.
Following a lapse of three years and four months, the Justice Ministry resumed executions of death row inmates in March 1993 under orders from then Justice Minister Masaharu Gotoda.
With the latest executions, the total number of inmates hanged since the resumption has reached 63.
There were no executions when Seiken Sugiura was justice minister between October 2005 and September 2006.
Hatoyama, the current justice minister, once proposed omitting the present requirement for the justice minister to sign an order for the execution of a death row inmate.
Hatoyama's predecessor, Jinen Nagase, who occupied the post between September 2006 and August 2007, ordered the executions of 10 inmates.
On Dec 7, Hatoyama announced the names of executed inmates and where they were executed for the first time.
At the time, Hatoyama said he announced the executions "in order to gain public understanding on the implementation of justice."
Previously, the Justice Ministry announced only the number of inmates executed without disclosing their names.