Two prominent lawyers, one for the death penalty and the other against it, held a heated debate last Thursday at a symposium in Tokyo that sought to deepen discussion on Japan's capital punishment system.
Yuji Ogawara, a Tokyo-based lawyer, contended that the death penalty should be abolished because of the possibility of a miscarriage of justice.
"In Japan, a suspect is interrogated, for example, by investigators without a defense lawyer present," he said. "Given the shortcomings of a judicial system handled by human beings, wrong judgments cannot be avoided."