JAPAN: DEATH ROW INMATE HANGED; 6TH EXECUTION SINCE ABE BECAME PM

September 12, 2013: Japan hanged a 73-year-old man, bringing to six the number of inmates executed since the conservative government of Shinzo Abe came to power in December.
Tokuhisa Kumagai was executed at the Tokyo Detention House, after being convicted of shooting dead the owner of a Chinese restaurant in a May 2004 robbery, among other crimes. The man was shot with a handgun at his house in May 2004. Kumagai made off with a bag containing 435,000 yen (about $4,350) in cash.
The period between the finalization of his sentence and execution was less than half of the average span of the past 10 years. Since the Liberal Democratic Party regained the reins of government, the average span has shrunk. Tokuhisa Kumagai's sentence was finalized in March 2011. According to the Justice Ministry, the average period between the finalization of the death sentence and the implementation of the punishment stood at about five years and seven months for death row inmates whose capital punishments were implemented from 2003 to 2012.
In a news conference, Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said, “Kumagai’s case is an extremely cruel one. I ordered the execution after I carefully examined the case.”
His execution was the first since two gangsters were sent to the gallows in April and took place despite repeated protests from European governments and human rights groups.
Tokyo did not execute anyone in 2011, the first full year in nearly two decades without an execution. But in March 2012 it abruptly resumed its use of capital punishment, dispatching three multiple murderers.
Japan now has 132 inmates on death row, according to the Justice Ministry. (Sources: AFP and ajw.asahi.com, 12/09/2013)