Japan's former Justice Minister Keiko Chiba surprised many people when she ordered the hanging of two convicted killers at the end of July.
For one thing, Chiba is a death penalty abolitionist who, prior to becoming justice minister in September 2009, spoke openly and often about Japan's need to ban a punishment that has been abandoned in law or practice by 70 percent of the nations in the world. For another, Chiba observed these executions, making her the first justice minister to watch the state killings that only this official can authorize.
It is unclear why Chiba ordered these hangings. Perhaps she believed it was her legal duty to do so (though many scholars disagree). There is also evidence that she was pressured by prosecutors in her ministry, who in the past have pushed reluctant ministers to keep the machinery of death moving lest the country drift into another moratorium on executions like the one it experienced for 40 months between 1989 and 1993.