National / Crime & Legal Dec 27, 2018
by Magdalena Osumi
The executions were the first carried out since 13 former members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult were hanged in July.
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National / Social Issues Sep 12, 2018
Cruel, secretive and politically popular: Japan's death penalty
by Miwa Suzuki
Years waiting on death row, inmates told their fate just hours before their execution and guards paid ¥20,000 to do an "unbearable" job — Japan's capital punishment system is criticized as cruel and secretive, yet remains popular. Unusual for a major industrialized power, capital punishment ...
National / Social Issues Sep 12, 2018
Free pending retrial, Japanese boxer sentenced to death keeps up the good fight
by Miwa Suzuki
Shuffling down the street sporting shorts, a jacket and straw hat, 82-year-old Iwao Hakamada could be mistaken for any Japanese octogenarian going about his daily chores. But the former boxer has had anything but an ordinary life: He has been living under a death sentence ...
National / Crime & Legal Jul 6, 2018
Japan and the United States are the only two members of the Group of Seven advanced economies that have the death penalty. Japanese death row inmates are executed by hanging. Three prison officers simultaneously press buttons to open the trap door so it is not ...
World / Crime & Legal Dec 27, 2017
India slams Pakistan's treatment of wife and mother of convicted spy on death row
India denounced Pakistan on Tuesday for its handling of the visit of the wife and mother of an Indian man on death row, saying they were harassed and prevented from talking to the prisoner freely. A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry did not respond to ...
World Dec 19, 2017
A former U.S. death row inmate whose conviction in the rape and killing of two sisters was overturned, admitted to the crimes Monday after decades of denial and was resentenced. Reginald Clemons of the state of Missouri pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with ...
National Jun 26, 2017
Triple murderer, 90, dies of suffocation as oldest prisoner on Japan's death row
A 90-year-old triple murderer, reportedly the oldest prisoner on death row, has choked to death on his own vomit at a prison in Fukuoka Prefecture, the government said Monday. Takeshige Hamada was convicted of killing three people in the prefecture for insurance money over a ...
National / Crime & Legal Apr 3, 2017
Miyazaki triple killer seeks retrial after victims' family has change of heart
A 29-year-old man on death row for the 2010 murder of his wife, baby and mother-in-law in Miyazaki Prefecture is seeking a retrial based on a plea for leniency from a member of the victims' family, his lawyer said Monday. The lawyer, Tomohiro Kurohara, said ...
National / Crime & Legal Dec 30, 2016
The number of death-row inmates in Japan in 2016 is expected to stand at 129 by Dec. 31, a rise of two people from last year, while continuing to surpass the threshold of 100 since 2007. Three inmates were executed during the year, while seven ...
National / Media | MEDIA MIX Jul 2, 2016
Japan dances with the death penalty
by Philip Brasor
Last week, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced his plans to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished in his country in 2006. Duterte says he believes in retribution: If you kill someone, you deserve to die. Some people are shocked by this rationale, but they ...
World / Crime & Legal Jun 10, 2016
U.S. top court sides with death-row inmate, hits prosecutor-turned-judge's potential bias
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a death-row inmate in a ruling warning of the hazards of judicial bias, slamming Pennsylvania's former chief justice for not stepping aside in a murder case in which he earlier had served as a prosecutor. The court's ...
National / Crime & Legal Mar 25, 2016
Japan sends two more inmates to the gallows
by Shusuke Murai
Two death row inmates were hanged Friday morning, according to the Justice Ministry, bringing to 16 the number of executions carried out under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration since taking power in 2012. The two prisoners were Yasutoshi Kamata, 75, and Junko Yoshida, 56. Yoshida ...