Three murder convicts hanged to death in Japan | London Mercury

Three murder convicts hanged to death in Japan

London Mercury Thursday 29th March, 2012

• Japan did not carry out any executions in 2011

• Japan is among a few advanced industrialized nations to retain death penalty

• A total of 132 convicts face death in Japan

TOKYO - In its first executions since July 2010, Japan Thursday hanged to death three inmates convicted of multiple murders.

"Today, three executions were carried out," Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa said. "I have carried out my duty as a justice minister as stipulated by law."

The unnamed prisoners were hanged in separate jails in Tokyo, Hiroshima and Fukuoka of Japan- one of the few industrialised countries, along with the US, in the world to retain the death penalty.

Media reports said that one of the executed had killed five people at a train station in western Japan in 1999.

The death sentence is usually reserved for multiple murders in Japan where, according to an official survey, majority of the people support the capital punishment.

A 2011 survey claimed that over 80 per cent of Japanese support death sentence.

But rights groups say death row is harsh in Japan with convicts held in captivity for decades with no advance information of when they will be hanged. This means they live in fear that every day is their last.

Groups like Amnesty International have called for scrapping of the capital punishment, saying the condemned have few visits, little exercise and are forced to spend almost all of their time sitting down in their cells.

Page 1 of 2 | Next