The European Union delegation to Japan will exhibit documents relating to executed murderer and noted writer Norio Nagayama this month to "stimulate discussion and reflection on the issue of the death penalty."
The eight-day exhibition starting next Thursday, the World Day against the Death Penalty, will display 10 panels on Nagayama, who gunned down four people over the course of two months in 1968 at the age of 19 and later became an award-winning writer through intensive study in prison, as well as some of his personal possessions.
Nagayama, a neglected child who grew up in difficult circumstances, wrote several books before he was hanged in 1997, including a best-selling autobiography, "Muchi no Namida" ("Tears of Ignorance"), while reading numerous books on a range of subjects, including the judicial system and philosophy.