Japan executes first 3 inmates since 2019, first under new prime minister
Japan this week carried out its first executions since 2019 when it hanged three convicted murderers.
The country’s Justice Ministry said that the executions, which marked the first carried out under new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, included Yasutaka Fujishiro, 65, who in 2004 slayed seven people, including his aunt and neighbors, CNN reports.
The ministry said that Tomoaki Takanezawa, 54, and Mitsunori Onogawa, 44, who in 2003 killed two employees at pachinko parlors, were also hanged, according to the outlet.
Hanging is the method used for every execution in Japan, with prisoners often notified of their fate just hours before. Rights group Amnesty International — among many looking to abolish Japan’s death penalty and the hangings in particular — says that executed prisoners’ families are generally only told about their relative’s execution after it’s been carried out, according to CNN.
“These are extremely brutal cases, taking precious lives for selfish reasons,” Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa told a news conference, the outlet reports. “I think these are terrible incidents not only for victims who lost their lives but also for bereaved families.”
Amnesty International death penalty adviser Chiara Sangiorgio said that the return to capital punishment was “a damning indictment of this government’s lack of respect for the right to life,” despite hopes that the new prime minister would allow for “progress on human rights” in the country — one of few industrialized democracies to continue executions.
Despite rights groups’ calls, officials like Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara have pushed back against abolishing the hangings, noting that violent crimes are still being committed.
Tuesday’s executions followed the filing of a lawsuit by two death row inmates against the government, demanding an end to the hangings, according to Reuters. Those inmates sought compensation for the impact of the executions.
