A prominent human rights group hopes the decision to release the world's longest serving death row inmate will spur greater debate in Japan about capital punishment and spur domestic reforms.

Chiara Sangiorgio, spokeswoman for Amnesty International, said Wednesday she is happy with last year's decision to release — pending a retrial — 79-year-old Iwao Hakamada, who was sentenced to death in 1968.

"We hope that through Hakamada's case we can put under the spotlight the plight of all the others on death row and the effects of solitary confinement and the secrecy and lack of notification of executions," Sangiorgio said.