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The Death Penalty in Japan

On the morning of 21 December 1995, [Kimura Shuji] went to visit her condemned son and was told that visiting hours were very busy and to come back at noon. When she returned, she was asked whether she wanted to take her son's body away for burial.

Welcome to death row in Japan. Prisoners are executed by hanging—a process known to produce "gruesome scenes of slow strangulation and even decapitation." And prisoners sitting on death row don't even know when they'll actually die. No one gives them a date. Prisoners aren't told "this day will be your last" until the actual morning of their execution, which can come at any time—days or months or decades after their appeals process is exhausted. Their families aren't notified until after they're dead. Everyone involved lives under the strain of uncertainty.

One prisoner, Oda Nobuo, exhausted his appeals process way back in 1970, and is still under sentence of death—meaning that he has had to wake up, in a solitary cell, every morning for nearly 40 years knowing that he could be executed that day without warning. One former prisoner describes how he was dragged out of his cell by guards one morning, before they whispered nervously that they had the wrong guy, put him back, and went to get some other guy for the hangman's noose. Oops. All of those stories come from a new Amnesty International report: "The Death Penalty in Japan."

Needless to say, spending decades on death row, without knowing when it will all end, is liable to make even the most level-headed inmate insane and suicidal. It's gratuitous torture of the worst sort. And that's doubly true in Japanese prisons, where death-row inmates are forced to live in solitary confinement, cut off from other prisoners and allowed only intermittent outside visits as well as two short periods a week to leave their cells for exercise. Not surprisingly, many prisoners develop mental health problems—although, since Japanese courts often find defendants with mental disabilities to be "mentally competent," many of those on death row where already mentally ill when they came in.

To say this is all quite horrifying seems inadequate. And lest anyone thinks that these prisoners are probably all guilty of sin and deserve what they get, note that Japanese courts convict a staggering 99 percent of those accused of crimes—the highest conviction rate in the developed world. The odds that innocent people are frequently sentenced to death are very, very high.

Indeed, the entire Japanese criminal "justice" system is geared towards speedy conviction. Under the daiyo kangoku system, Japanese police can interrogate suspects in police cells for up to 23 days before transferring them to prison. There are few rules regulating interrogations, and a suspects' access to a lawyer is extremely limited during this time. Amnesty has long documented how the police use beatings, intimidation, and sleep deprivation to extract "confessions" from suspects for crimes they haven't committed. In the 1980s four men were released from death row after it was revealed that they signed such confessions under torture, but even though there's no reason to think this was a special case, death-row pardons are extremely rare.

Here, meanwhile, is a 1998 Amnesty report about Japanese prison conditions for everyone else. Frankly, they're not much better. Prisoners are often beaten severely by guards for minor rule infractions (one such rule: "Avoid leaning against the bedding or sitting on it") and placed in special confinement cells where they're forced to kneel on the floor without moving for 10 hours a day over month-long periods. There are also special "protection cells" where prisoners are kept in handcuffs and tight restraints 24 hours a day—often without good reason. Not that American prisons are much better, but the Japanese may well have us beat on the cruel and unusual front.

Comments

In around 83 years Japan will manage to match the execution pace of George W. Bush - provided Japan maintains their present rate of executions (approx. 1.8 executions a year since 2000) Should we conclude that Japan ought to execute more prisoners each year so as to be more human and perhaps even shorten the sentances to say one day after sentancing and then you get hung or should we simply say life without parole is acceptable and is more human, or is 20-30 years in prison for murder punishment enough or is that too liberal? Is waking up everyday knowing you might die not Zen? At least this problem illustrates the weakness in the principle of deduction.

Posted by: jeff on 07/21/06 at 10:26 PM Respond

Good thing the US doesn't have the death penalty

oops

Posted by: Mark on 07/22/06 at 1:26 AM Respond

And yet, surprisingly, Japan has low crime. Funny, that.

Posted by: Julian Morrison on 07/22/06 at 5:11 AM Respond

I have never understood the debates that rage about the suffering caused by the various types of execution. The victim ends up dead. That`s D.E.A.D, killed.
Nothing else that happens to them is likely to be as bad as that. The idea that there can ever be any ethical killing of human beings, aside from　in self-defence, is just bizarre.

Posted by: anthonyberet on 07/22/06 at 5:20 AM Respond

All of the Asian countries seem to have extremely strict corporal punishment.

Posted by: nynerd on 07/22/06 at 5:42 AM Respond

Oh, I'm crying for them. NOT

Posted by: john on 07/22/06 at 7:35 AM Respond

Mind you, I don't agree with the horrible conditions and a court system that has 99% conviction, but remember that Japan only executes the worst of the worst these days - the leader of Aum Shinrikyo, for example - and ends up at 2-3 a year.

Honestly, if we were talking about that few and only the worst of worst crimes, few people would be so adamant about the death penalty.

Posted by: Eric B. on 07/22/06 at 10:14 AM Respond

@ anthonyberet:

Okay, you can die by single gunshot to the head, or via gruesome strangulation over the course of 5-15 minutes. Your choice.

Posted by: Flashman on 07/23/06 at 2:42 AM Respond

Eric B. --

"Mind you, I don't agree with the horrible conditions and a court system that has 99% conviction, but remember that Japan only executes the worst of the worst these days - the leader of Aum Shinrikyo, for example - and ends up at 2-3 a year."

True -- though it depends on the government in charge -- but there are also at least 87 people still sitting on death row, and more added every year -- and as the report points out, sitting on death row can be worse than actual execution. (Mind you, I never claimed this was the most pressing problem in the world, but it's still quite striking.)

Posted by: Brad Plumer on 07/23/06 at 12:30 PM Respond

@ Flashman (not that you are likely to come back and read this).

You miss my point. Yes a death can be slow and painful. That does not mean that a killing which is quick and painless can be morally ok.

Posted by: anthonyberet on 09/18/06 at 3:28 PM Respond

@ Flashman again - oh, I forgot euthanasia to reduce suffering. That can be a killing which is morally ok. However, this doesn't apply to execution, as there is an alternative to execution which doesn't result in the death of a human being.

Posted by: anthonyberet on 09/18/06 at 3:32 PM Respond

"Not that American prisons are -much- better..."

Oh, I'd say that the American penal system is a veritable network of country clubs compared to Japan, or many if not most Asian and Middle Eastern prisons. There are people incarcerated here who have freedoms those in the above countries can only dream about. I've seen other stories about Japan's prisons; our dogs & cats in animal shelters are often treated better. It's always fun to bash America first, but I'd say we come out on top compared to many of the world's countries.

Posted by: Scott on 09/20/06 at 4:10 AM Respond

I will say that the death penalty is completely wrong. No wonder society was and still is in the state it is in. Children grow up with the idea in the back of their mind, that it is OK to kill people.. No matter what the circumstance, and how "rarely" it happens, And how justified we may belive it is, The governments of the world are still killing people. it's just not right at all. I for one also think that a life in prison serves as a better punishment and deterent towards crime. And yes, it may be also a very cruel thing to do, much like Capitol punishment, but it is not taking away actual life, which is sacred.

Posted by: Rohan on 09/26/06 at 10:19 AM Respond

DEATH PENALTY OBJECTIONS – PRETENTIOUS AND REAL
Today never is an innocent citizen executed in America; and it is simply euthanasia. The once popular public hanging was a superior deterrent to murder and treason.
Imprisonment rewards murderers with lifelong medical and social care incentives.
Thus, "possible innocence and cruel suffering" are the pretentious reasons of those Neo-Cons and Neo-Libs who are endlessly trying to end the democratically popular death penalty; as shown by their support for sacrifices of American lives by illegal foreign wars and legalized abortion.
In reality, they dread the death penalty, because it is also applied to traitors, as in the case of notorious Marxists spies from Nazi Germany, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
If the court violates the popular death penalty practice of the American People, it would be an act of tyranny, and an un-Constitutional attempt to usurp legislative powers.

Posted by: Jeugenen on 06/18/08 at 11:56 AM Respond