Japan – If death penalty replaced with life imprisonment without parole, 52% for retaining death penalty

Source: Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (15 February 2020)

https://adpan.org/2020/02/15/japan-if-death-penalty-replaced-with-life-imprisonment-without-parole-52-for-retaining-death-penalty/

In a recent opinion poll by the Cabinet Office in November 2019 on the death penalty, 9.0% of Japanese respondents answered it should be abolished in all cases, while 80.8% said that it was necessary in some cases…

When asked if the death penalty should be kept or abolished in the case that a system of life sentencing without parole was introduced, 35.1% answered that it should be abolished, while 52.0% said it should continue.

Poll Reveals More than 80% Support Death Penalty in Japan

Society Feb 4, 2020

A poll conducted by the Cabinet Office in November 2019 found that 80.8% of Japanese people feel that the death penalty is sometimes necessary.

In a recent opinion poll on the death penalty, 9.0% of Japanese respondents answered it should be abolished in all cases, while 80.8% said that it was necessary in some cases.

The opinion poll was conducted by the Cabinet Office in November 2019, targeted at 3,000 Japanese adults. The poll is held every five years and in the four polls since 2004, support for the death penalty has continuously topped 80%.

Among those who want to see the death penalty abolished (multiple answers possible), the most common, with 50.7%, was that if there is a mistake in the judgment, it cannot be undone.

On the other hand, the most common reason given by those who said that the death penalty was necessary was that the victim’s feelings had to be considered (56.6%).

When asked if the death penalty should be kept or abolished in the case that a system of life sentencing without parole was introduced, 35.1% answered that it should be abolished, while 52.0% said it should continue.

According to the Amnesty International Global Report: Death Sentences and Executions 2018, executions were carried out in 20 countries in 2018, of which the only Group of Seven nations were Japan and the United States. That same year, 15 people were executed in Japan, 13 of whom were Aum Shinrikyō cult leaders who had been involved in the deadly Tokyo subway sarin gas attack in 1995.

Japan executes two more prisoners, taking annual total to highest in a decade

Source: CNN (27 December 2018)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/27/asia/japan-capital-punishment-intl/index.html

Two death-row inmates were hanged in Japan on Thursday, taking the number of executions in the country this year to 15 -- the highest annual total since 2008.

Keizo Okamoto, 60, a former senior member of a crime syndicate, and Hiroya Suemori, 67, a former investment adviser, had been sentenced to death in 2004 for a robbery-murder.

They stole about 100 million yen ($900,800) from the president of an investment advisory company in 1988 before killing him and another employee. They then packed the bodies into concrete.

"It is an extremely brutal case in which they robbed the precious life of the victims, indeed for selfish reasons," Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita said on Thursday.

Yamashita signed the order for their execution on Tuesday.

Conducted in secrecy

Executions are done in secret in Japan, with no advance warning given to the prisoner, their family or legal representatives, according to Amnesty International.

Prisoners often only learn of their impending execution a matter of hours before it takes place.
Capital punishment is usually reserved for those who have committed multiple murders. All executions are done by hanging.

Japan's Code of Criminal Procedure states the death penalty should be implemented within six months of the issuing of the sentence, but in fact that is almost never the case.

The controversial system made international headlines in July when 13 members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which carried out the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, were executed.

A total of 36 prisoners have now been executed since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in December 2012, and places Japan at odds with the growing international trend towards abolition of the death penalty.

Japan and the US are the only two developed democracies to have capital punishment. About 170 states have either abolished or put a stay on executions since the United Nations General Assembly called for a universal moratorium on the death penalty in 2007.