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.

Courts sentenced 46 to death in 2007

Japanese courts handed down death sentences to a total of 46 defendants in 2007, the highest number since 1980, the earliest year for which comparable data are available. At least 106 people — the highest number since 1980 — were on death row after final rulings as of the end of 2007, the year in which nine people were hanged, also the largest number.
District, high and Supreme courts in Japan issued a record number of death sentences in 2007 for the second year in a row. The annual data — based on the government's annual statistics report on judicial affairs — underscore the trend toward harsher punishment in Japan.
When the U.N. moratorium resolution was adopted, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said, "Whether the death sentence should be maintained or abolished should be decided independently by each country by taking into account the sentiments of its people and its crime situation."
"In our country, a majority of the public thinks that death sentences are inevitable for people who commit heinous crimes," said the minister. In Japan, an execution by hanging must be authorized by the justice minister.

U.N. high commissioner for human rights criticizes 3 executions

The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, has expressed concern over the execution of three Japanese prisoners that took place recently in Japan. "This practice is problematic under international law, and I call on Japan to reconsider its approach in this regard," Arbour said in a press statement released Monday.

Also of particular concern to the high commissioner was the execution of an elderly inmate as one of the three inmates was aged 74. "It is difficult to see what legitimate purpose is served by carrying out such executions of the elderly, and at the very least on humanitarian grounds, I would urge Japan to refrain from such action," she said. There are currently 104 inmates whose death sentences have been finalized.

Upper house lawmakers inspect execution chamber

A group of lawmakers from the House of Councillors' legal affairs committee inspected an execution chamber at Tokyo Detention House on Thursday.
It was the first such inspection by lawmakers other than the justice minister in about four years. Members of the House of Representatives' legal affairs committee also plan to inspect it on Monday.
According to committee chairman Kiyohiko Toyama, 11 members inspected the execution facility where inmates are hanged and the site where detention officials push the buttons to operate the facility.
"I had the impression that the Justice Ministry is reluctant to disclose information about executions, including the execution chamber," Toyama told reporters, stressing the need to debate the issue of capital punishment.
Toyama said he is against capital punishment and that it should be abolished and replaced by life imprisonment.
Other members of the committee said, "We should consider whether hanging is appropriate," and "The psychological burden on detention officials involved in executions may be huge," according to Toyama.
The Justice Ministry turned down requests from media organizations to accompany the lawmakers, saying, "It is a place where the heaviest and most severe penalty is executed, and is not suitable to be publicized."

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.

Record 44 sentenced to death in Japan in 2006

A record 44 people were sentenced to death in Japan this year, while capital punishment on 21 defendants was finalized, bringing the number of death row inmates to 94, also a record high, according to the Supreme Court and other sources.

The 21 defendants include Aum Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, 51, who was convicted of masterminding the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system and other charges, and Kaoru Kobayashi, 38, who murdered a 7-year-old girl in Nara Prefecture in 2004.

Japanese man given death sentence in China for drug smuggling

A Japanese man has been sentenced to death by a court in Dalian, northeastern China, on charges of trying to smuggle 1.5 kilograms of stimulant drugs to Japan in 2003, Japanese officials said Friday. The man, only identified as a person in his 40s, pleaded not guilty and plans to appeal the ruling, according to the officials of the Dalian Branch Office of the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang.

The defendant was detained at Dalian airport in July 2003 over alleged possession of the drugs when he was about to board a flight to Osaka, they said. He was quoted as saying somebody asked him to carry them and that he did not know they were stimulant drugs.

4 death row inmates hanged; two in their 70s

Four death row inmates in Japan were hanged Monday, the first executions since September last year, informed sources said. They are Yoshimitsu Akiyama, 77, and Yoshio Fujinami, 75, who were both held at the Tokyo Detention House, Michio Fukuoka, 64, who was held at the Osaka Detention House, and Hiroaki Hidaka, 44, incarcerated at the Hiroshima Detention House.

The executions are the first under Justice Minister Jinen Nagase, who assumed the post when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched his Cabinet in September. Nagase's predecessor, Seiken Sugiura, did not give the go-ahead for any executions during his 11 months in office.

Amnesty International Japan released a statement to protest the executions. "The latest executions were carried out when the Diet is adjourned and without advance notice to the inmates themselves or their families," the statement said.

"The death penalty is a punishment that is cruel, inhumane and hurts dignity...We hope Japan will take the first step in the near future to abolish the death penalty," it said.

Japan resumed executions in March 1993 following a moratorium of some 40 months. Since then, hangings have been carried out every year, and the latest four brings to 51 the number of hangings since the resumption.

According to Amnesty, 128 countries around the world have abolished, or virtually terminated, capital punishment, while 69 countries still maintain the death penalty.

Gangster's wife, younger son sentenced to death for four murders

The Fukuoka District Court sentenced a woman and her younger son to death Tuesday for killing four people in a scheme to rob them in 2004 in Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, about 70 kilometers south of central Fukuoka. The court handed down the sentences against Mami Kitamura, 47, and her son Takahiro, 22, as demanded by prosecutors.

The two were found guilty of killing acquaintance Sayoko Takami, 58, her elder son Tatsuyuki, 18, and his friend Junichi Hara, 17, on Sept 18, 2004, and also of abandoning their bodies in a minivehicle in a river. The son was also found guilty of an additional charge of killing Takami's younger son Joji, 15, and of abandoning his body in a river.