JAPAN UNDER FIRE FOR 'SECRETIVE, INHUMANE' DEATH PENALTY

March 24, 2009: Amnesty International renewed its calls for Japan to abolish its use of the death penalty, accusing the country of shrouding the practice in secrecy.
Amnesty's Asia-Pacific director, Sam Zafiri, says people in Japan are not well informed about the capital punishment system, under which inmates are not told of their impending execution until the morning of their death.
"I think people would be surprised to hear that Japan, one of the most industrialised nations in the world, is still carrying out executions in this way," he told ABC's Radio National Breakfast.
"People on death row are kept in solitary confinement, sometimes for decades”. (Sources: abc.net,au, 24/03/2009)