Japan hanged three death row inmates on Tuesday, marking the first execution since December 2019. This is also the first execution since the appointment of the new PM Fumio Kishida in October. As per government sources, the execution was carried out after Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa passed the orders.
Furukawa took charge in October and during that moment he did talk about the death penalty in the Japanese Justice system. He clarified death punishments are necessary especially for criminals who have committed heinous crimes. So, they cannot avoid the death penalty.
His remarks show that the present government does acknowledge capital punishment for the good of society. In particular, Japan along with the US are some of the few developed nations with the death penalty in its justice system despite criticism from the international community. The Japanese people did support capital punishment which is why the country has been able to maintain capital punishment in its justice system till now.
The three executions on Tuesday were carried out for Yasutaka Fujishiro, Tomoaki Takanezawa, and Mitsunori Onogawa. A spokeswoman told that 65 years old Fujishiro was penalized for mass killing his aged aunt, two of his cousins, as well as 4 other people using a hammer and knife in 2004. The other two death row inmates were accomplices. 54 years old Takanezawa and 44 years old Onogawa were executed for murdering two clerks at an arcade game parlor in 2003.
According to government sources, there are more than 100 death row inmates in the country. All of them have a history of dreadful murders. Previously, in December 2019, a death row inmate, a Chinese man was executed for killing a family of 4 people in Fukuoka Prefecture. In Japan, executions are held up by hanging sometime after the sentencing is completed. However, the prisoners are informed of their execution only a few hours before it goes on.
Although this exercise has been condemned by the human rights community because of its harsh yet unethical nature. They believe it simply puts tension on death row prisoners. To them, there’s always the dilemma that any day could be their death day. Due to the distressing nature of Japan’s execution method, two prisoners sued the government over it. The two asserted that the practice is unlawful and triggers psychological problems. They even seek compensation of about 22 million yen which is around $194,000 from the government over the distress caused by the same.
As per the UK-based non-governmental organization, Amnesty International, last year at least 483 people were executed in 18 countries. The data from last year is pretty lower than 2015 and simply points towards a downward trend in death penalties worldwide. Nonetheless, it must be noted that the data by Amnesty International does not include executions carried out in confidential countries like China, North Korea, Vietnam, and many more. Thus, there’s no confirmation regarding the assumed downward trend.