Japan and the death penalty: A set of articles

[Hachiko]

Here are some news articles on Japan and the death penalty. Interesting reads.

Despite official data showing public support for capital punishment running at around 80 percent, few Japanese are willing to openly defend the death penalty.

http://www.japantimes.com/images/photos2004/fl20040425x6a.jpg
Kazuhiro Tokoro

One of them is a specialist in criminal policy, Kazuhiko Tokoro, professor emeritus at Rikkyo (St. Paul's) University in Tokyo.

However, it's a position he takes with reluctance, as when he was a panelist on the Nihon Gakujutsu Kaigi (Science Council of Japan), often dubbed "the Diet of Scholars," at its 1997 symposium when for the first time ever it discussed this issue.

In a recent interview, Tokoro explained his views to The Japan Times.



Japan Times: Reluctantly putting the hanging case (http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20040425x6.htm)

[Hachiko]

'The death penalty is legal murder, and as someone who has stood by and watched it being carried out, I am an accessory to murder."
As a volunteer prison chaplain accredited by the Justice Ministry, Makoto Tanaka (not his real name) knows all too well the reality of life behind bars in Japan. He has heard the cries of those in need of help; he has become their friend, their mentor.

But his role also requires him to be present at executions, and to witness, feel and share the extreme suffering of all those involved, whether is the condemned inmate, other prisoners, the wardens or even the prison governors who must oversee the legalized killings.



Japan Times (http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20040425x5.htm)

[Hachiko]

He heard the footsteps approaching down the hall outside. He sat still, barely breathing. The other cells lay equally silent. None of the other condemned prisoners moved. No one spoke. Those footsteps meant only one thing: there was going to be a hanging.

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Kenjiro Ishii (center), who spent 28 years on death row before his sentence was commuted in 1975 to life imprisonment, is greeted Dec. 8, 1989 by Buddhist priest Tairyu Furukawa and his wife Michiko on the day their unswerving campaign for his innocence finally saw him paroled PHOTO COURTESY OF HOZOKAN. FROM FURUKAWA'S BOOK, "SAKEBITASHI KANMANGETSU NO WARERU HODO" (Hozokan, 1991)

For 28 years, Kenjiro Ishii spent every morning on death row in sheer terror. Fearing that he would hear the footsteps, and that this time they would stop outside his cell door, and that he would then be led away. All that time, though, he hoped against hope that someone might believe in his innocence and that of his co-accused, Takeo Nishi, and that they would be freed.

Then, one day in June 1975, the footsteps stopped at Ishii's cell. This is it, he thought, hurriedly scribbling down a will. Then he was swept out of his cell -- not, as he'd thought, to be taken to his death on the scaffold, but to be taken to the office of the governor, who informed him that his death sentence had been commuted to one of life imprisonment.



Japan Times (http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20040425x4.htm)

[Hachiko]

More than four years have passed since his 2-year-old granddaughter was murdered, yet never a day goes by without Tsuneo Matsumura mournfully remembering little Haruna, or having images of her flash through his mind whenever he sees a girl about the same age as she would be.

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Tsuneo Matsumura (center) vents his frustration on Dec. 5, 2001, after Tokyo District Court failed to sentence to death the woman who killed his granddaughter.

But there is someone else he will never forget -- Mitsuko Yamada, the killer.

Yamada was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment in 2002. But Matsumura was not satisfied. From the beginning, he had called for the maximum penalty -- the death sentence.

"The death penalty is the only way for a murderer to compensate for taking a person's life," he said. "I wanted her to atone for Haruna's murder with her own life."



Japan Times (http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20040425x3.htm)

[Hachiko]

It is the staircase of doom. Who knows what goes through a person's mind as they ascend those steps to the scaffold. Are they consumed with dread? Filled with thoughts of their loved ones? Or are they burdened with thoughts of their crime? No one knows because no one comes back down those stairs alive.
But Kiichi Toya has been there. He has seen with his own eyes the executions. And to this day, those images still haunt him.



Japan Times (http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20040425x2.htm)

[Hachiko]

The maximum legal penalty in Japan is death. Locked alone in their tiny cells, 56 death-row prisoners are now awaiting their fate. Last year, one person was executed. No one knows how many will be this year.
According to Amnesty International, 117 countries have outlawed the death penalty or are operating moratoriums. Despite this continuing international trend, however, Japan remains one of 78 countries still carrying out capital punishment.


Japan Times (http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20040425x1.htm)