Four prisoners executed in Japan

Source: BBC

... The four were hanged in Tokyo, Nagoya and Fukuoka, Kyodo news agency said.

Japan is one of the few countries in Asia which has stepped up its use of the death penalty, despite international condemnation.

Last year it carried out 15 executions, and in 2007 nine condemned prisoners were put to death ...

It is thought that about 100 .. are on death row awaiting execution.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7857437.stm

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Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009
Legal system defect makes presumed innocence a joke: gallows foe
By KEIJI HIRANO
Kyodo News

... "People sometimes admit to offenses they did not commit because if they continue to deny guilt, they will not be released on bail after their arrest and indictment," Yoshihiro Yasuda, a Tokyo-based lawyer, told a Monday symposium in Tokyo. "And they cannot be acquitted unless their lawyers completely prove their innocence."

The symposium was held on the 61st anniversary of the Teigin Incident, the most notorious case of mass poisoning in postwar Japan, in which the adopted son of a late death-row inmate is still seeking a retrial to clear the convicted killer's name ...

"The death penalty is a 'weapon' for investigators. They could tell suspects, 'You will be hanged if you do not admit to the charges,' " <Yasuda> said.

As for the Teigin case, more than 30 justice ministers refused to sign the execution order, and Yasuda told the audience of about 50, "They must have had concerns over the possible discovery of the real culprit, but they refused to release Hirasawa to save the 'honor' of the legal system."

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090129f3.html

I refuse to spend my tourist dollars visiting a state that allows the death penalty. In America, you have to go state by state, but it will be a cold day in hell when I spend money in a place like Texas.

of states which do/don't have the death penalty? and as a matter of interest, do you apply your reasoning to states that still have the DP but essentially don't use it?

Try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_capital_punishment_by_nation

If they have a DP and don't use it, I have a wallet, and can use it. But take out a noose, and back in the pocket it goes.

population support the death penalty.
If you actually avoid spending in states that impose the DP, I find it hard to think
you would ever have visited Japan anyway.

WW II and believe that Dok-do island is really part of Japan.

Texas and China aren't likely to be the best of models to follow on the international stage.

Source: CNN

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japan executed four convicted killers on death row Thursday, the government said, marking the first set of executions in the country since October 2008.

All four men were hanged, Japan's primary method of execution, the Justice Ministry said. The ministry identified the inmates a 58-year-old Tadashi Makino, convicted of killing four women in separate home invasion robberies, 44-year-old Yukinari Kawamura and 39-year-old Tetsuya Sato, both convicted of killing two women and burning their bodies in steel barrels and 32-year-old Shojiro Nishimoto, convicted of killing four people in separate home invasion robberies.

The executions represented blatant human rights violations, said Amnesty International spokesman Makoto Teranaka.

"Japan is going against the rest of the world by increasing the pace of executions, at a time when other countries are slowing their pace."



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/01/29/japan.executions.killers/

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I guess I haven't been paying attention, I wasn't aware that Japan had the DP.