I really like the fact that Japanese death row inmates do not know when they will be executed. The shock of being led out of their cells to be topped right away serves as a bit of retribution for the murder(s) they committed.
TWO KILLERS HANGED IN JAPAN’S FIRST EXECUTIONS UNDER NEW GOVERNMENT
Mail Online
July 28, 2010
Two killers have been hanged in Japan’s first executions in a year.
Kazuo Shinozawa, 59, was sentenced to the death penalty after setting fire to a jewelry shop killing the six women inside in 2000.
Hidenori Ogata, 33, stabbed a man and woman to death in 2003.
They were both hanged today at the Tokyo Detention Center in the first executions to be carried out since the Democratic Party of Japan swept to power in September 2009.
Japan, along with the U.S., is one of the few industrialized countries that still has capital punishment.
Justice Minister Keiko Chiba, formerly a member of a group of politicians opposed to the death penalty, witnessed the executions.
Afterwards, she said she wanted a new study group to spur debate on the punishment, including whether it should be abolished in Japan.
She added: ‘Witnessing the executions with my own eyes made me think deeply about the death penalty.’
Ms Chiba left the anti-execution group to take the top ministry job under the new government, but she has continued to express reservations about the practice.
The country’s media organizations are not permitted to cover executions. But Ms Chiba said that should change.
Criminals can be left on death row for years in Japan, and executions - all carried out by hanging - are highly secretive.
Inmates do not know when they will be executed, while lawyers and family are only told after the fact.
Japan has 107 death row inmates, the ministry of justice said.
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