Among major industrial countries, only Japan and the United States retain capital punishment. In Japan, however, there is a growing abolition movement. The Diet Members' League for Abolition of the Death Penalty, a suprapartisan group headed by Shizuka Kamei of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, has drafted legislation to replace capital punishment with life imprisonment and to establish panels in both Houses of the Diet to study the death penalty.
The bill does not propose an immediate abolition but calls for a four-year moratorium on executions. It leaves much to be desired in the eyes of the international community, where countries and regions that have abolished death penalty outnumber those that retain it. Yet the legislation is a step in the right direction.
The parliamentary group accounts for only 15 percent of the Lower House members, making the outlook for enactment of the bill uncertain. Public opinion is not entirely favorable toward the abolition of the death penalty.