26 July 2022 :

Japan on 26 July 2022 executed a man who killed seven people in a vehicle crash and stabbing rampage in a crowded Tokyo shopping district in 2008.
Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa told reporters that Tomohiro Kato was hanged at the Tokyo detention center earlier 26 July.
Furukawa said Kato had thoroughly prepared to commit the mass killings — "an atrocious act that led to extremely serious consequences and had a major impact on society."
In the attack, Kato drove down his truck on a street in the Akihabara electronics shopping area, slamming into a crowd of people and killing three pedestrians in June 2008. He then got out of the vehicle and stabbed four people to death. He injured or wounded 10 others.
Surveillance footage aired by national broadcaster NHK afterward showed Kato buying hunting knives two days before the attack, laughing with a store worker and at times making stabbing motions with his hands. Media reports also said he had posted on internet message boards several despondent messages and warnings that he was planning to kill people in a mass attack.
Kato, 39, was sentenced to death in 2011 by the Tokyo District Court, and the Supreme Court rejected his appeal in 2015.
Furukawa denied hanging of 26 July was related to the shooting death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this month, which shocked the nation known for strict gun controls and low crime rate.
The hanging of Kato was the second under the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who took office in October.
Japan now has 107 people on death row, including 61 seeking retrials, Furukawa said.

29 November 2022 :

Three death-row inmates in Osaka filed a suit against the state on 29 November 2022, seeking an end to the practice of execution by hanging, claiming the method was inhumane under international conventions.
All three plaintiffs have been detained at Osaka Detention House for over 10 years, of which two have additionally been in the process of appealing their sentences.
The plaintiffs' attorney Kyoji Mizutani said the lawsuit is aimed at "highlighting the reality of capital punishment" in Japan and creating public conversation on whether the practice should continue.
The Justice Ministry said it could not comment as it has not received the complaint.
The inmates, whose names, ages and genders have been withheld, are also seeking damages worth 33 million yen ($237,000).
The plaintiffs claim that hanging as the sole means of execution under Japan's Penal Code is inhumane, that it causes unbearable pain and violates international covenants on human rights.
The inmates also said living in fear over a long period of time -- due to their not knowing when they will be executed -- has led to mental agony.
The complaint contends that the government's withholding of information such as the manner of executions hinders public debate on the pros and cons of the death penalty.

15 November 2022 :

Japan's justice minister stepped down on November 11 evening, becoming the second minister to leave Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet over a scandal in less than a month and forcing a last-minute delay for the embattled premier's Asia tour.
Kishida's support has slumped to the 30% level in many recent polls, close to a danger zone that would make it hard for him to promote his agenda.
The justice minister, Yasuhiro Hanashi, had come under widespread criticism over comments reported in the media in which he made light of his duties, specifically signing off on executions, which he referred to as "tedious".
"I made citizens and ministry staff uncomfortable," Hanashi told reporters after tendering his resignation to Kishida, referring to his comments about the death penalty.
Earlier, Hanashi, a member of Kishida's faction within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was reported to have suggested there was little political advantage to his cabinet post and that he only made the news for "approving an execution in the morning".
Japan carries out capital punishment by hanging and does not inform prisoners until the morning of the day of their execution, a policy that rights groups have criticised for decades.
Hanashi apologised on November 10 for the comments and told parliament that he "took them back".
"I feel great responsibility" for having appointed Hanashi to the post, Kishida later told reporters after accepting Hanashi's resignation.
Kishida named Harvard-educated Ken Saito, a former agriculture minister, to replace Hanashi.

25 October 2022 :

Two prisoners sentenced to death in Japan have launched a legal challenge against how the country applies the death penalty, Vatican News reported on 24 October 2022.
Japan gives prisoners on death row only one or two hours' notice of their hanging, a policy that authorities say safeguards the prisoner’s “emotional stability.”
Campaigners say it deprives prisoners of their legal rights, as well as the chance to say goodbye to family or receive Church ministry.
The case, brought by two anonymous death row prisoners in Osaka district court, contains harrowing testimony.
“When the prison officer opens the door of the prisoner’s room and announces the execution, the prisoner is immediately detained and taken to the place of execution,” the case quotes death row prisoner Hiroshi Sakaguchi as writing to lawyers. “The prisoner is tied up, handcuffed, and taken to the execution table in the same clothes, where he is hanged with a noose. … We, the condemned, are not allowed to object to the execution.”
Other testimony takes the form of an audio tape recorded in 1955, which shows the final hours of an unnamed prisoner at a time when notice periods were longer. In the tape, the man receives three days’ notice of his upcoming execution and spends the time making affectionate farewells to inmates and his visiting sister, who sobs. The tape includes sound of the man being hanged as Buddhist priests chant sutras.
Japan now has tightened the notice period to one to two hours, giving prisoners insufficient time to contact anyone outside the prison or even to reflect on their upcoming death.
Takeshi Kaneko, a lawyer acting in Osaka for the two anonymous prisoners, says the policy is wrong.
“If you give notice on the day, you can’t prepare well,” Kaneko said. “It’s only due to the convenience of the authorities that they let the prisoner know on the morning of the day. That is a mistake.”
Moreover, the policy denies prisoners the chance to contact a lawyer, and therefore the right of appeal. At least one prisoner was executed while an appeal was underway.
Japan’s Justice Ministry has never said why or when it adopted immediate executions. It says only the policy ensures the prisoner’s “emotional stability.”
Campaigners believe it may be an attempt to prevent suicide. One death-row inmate killed himself in 1975, and the policy may date from that time.
The uncertainty points to the secrecy surrounding executions in Japan.
The Justice Ministry announces a prisoner’s name and conviction but nothing else, citing non-disclosure and privacy rules. Some prisoners are held for more than a decade on death row before being killed on an apparently arbitrary date.
The secrecy means there is almost no public debate in Japan about the death penalty or how it is applied. Campaigners believe many people are even unaware that all prisoners are hanged, a policy unchanged since the 19th century.
“Since only two pieces of information are disclosed by the authorities, this is a situation in which it is impossible to discuss the death penalty system,” Kaneko said.
The current court case does not seek to overthrow the death penalty. The lawyers are challenging one small part of the procedure as a way to start a wider discussion.
“I’d like to ask everyone what they think about the death penalty,” Kaneko said. “Should the notice period be 30 days, 90 days, or even longer? Since there’s no discussion in Japan, we can raise awareness of the problem.”
Kaneko recommends that Japan consider following procedures in the United States, where prisoners in some states are given freedom to meet guests, write letters and eat a last meal of choice. This retains some of their dignity and offers a measure of healing.
If Japan adopted advance notice, it might allow prisoners a final tea ceremony and a chance to write haiku poetry, the Osaka court case argues.
In 1979, Japan became a member of the Covenant on Civil Liberties, which prohibits “painful and humiliating” methods of execution. The Committee on Civil Liberties, which oversees implementation of the covenant, has several times expressed concern that death row inmates are executed without prior notice, and that their families cannot prepare themselves. This, it says, is cruel.
Meanwhile, the legal team in Osaka fears retribution against the two prisoners in this court case. They could be executed any day, for an undisclosed reason.
Because of that, the court is not being told their names.

22 September 2022 :

Japan’s defense ministry said on 22 September 2022 it will halt training for members of Myanmar’s military from next year over the junta’s executions of pro-democracy activists.
In July, Myanmar’s junta executed four prisoners, including a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party and a prominent activist, in the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades.
Before the executions, then-Japanese defense minister Nobuo Kishi had called on the junta to “swiftly end violence” and “take concrete measures to restore democracy.”
But absent any reform efforts and following the executions, “we have decided it is not appropriate to maintain defense cooperation and exchanges with Myanmar,” a ministry official told AFP, declining to be named.
Since 2015, Japan has received 30 members of the Myanmar military as students at facilities including the National Defense Academy.
The program is intended to help the students acquire “correct knowledge about democracy and civilian leadership” of the military, through interaction with Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, Kishi told parliament in April.
There are currently 11 military personnel in Japan as part of the program and they will be allowed to complete their training, but new applications will no longer be accepted, the official said.
Myanmar’s junta has sentenced dozens of anti-coup activists to death as part of its crackdown on dissent after seizing power last year, but the country had not carried out an execution for decades.
A major provider of economic assistance to Myanmar, Tokyo has long-standing relations with the country’s military.
After the coup, Japan announced it would halt all new aid, though it stopped short of imposing individual sanctions on military and police commanders.
The decision to continue training military personnel after the coup was heavily criticized by rights groups.
“It’s mind-boggling that Japan is providing military training to Myanmar cadets at the same time as its armed forces are committing crimes against humanity against Myanmar’s people,” global rights organization Human Rights Watch said in a statement last year.