日本語版

Note: This campaign text includes pictures of execution tools so that you can understand the reality of how the death penalty is carried out in Japan.

■Execution chamber and button room
The top image shows prison rooms (button room and execution chamber) within the Tokyo Detention House where the death penalty is carried out. These images were released to the press by the Ministry of Justice on 27 August 2010.

The four buttons lined up on the left are the 'execution buttons'.

The death penalty in Japan is carried out by hanging; a noose is placed around the neck and tightened. The floor panel is released, causing death.

Each of the execution buttons is pressed by a different prison officer at the same time, but only one button is actually functions as the floor release. In order to reduce the mental burden on the prison officers involved, none knows which button is actually the activating button.

Note: The published photo does not show the rope in place.

 

■The people of Japan approve of the death penalty

Many people in Japan believe that if a person has killed someone, then execution is the price they must pay.

According to a public opinion poll conducted by the Cabinet Office, some 80% of people say that the death penalty is "unavoidable". However, information on the death penalty in Japan is extremely limited and the nature of the punishment is not made public at all. The situation is such that the public supports the continuation of the death penalty without being aware of the procedures and methods of the death penalty or knowing the situation elsewhere in the world.

When the order is given for a death penalty to be carried out, a prison officer will press the button for execution at the prison. The Japanese people unwittingly permit prison officers to carry out this punishment that takes a human life.

The responsibility for the execution button continuing to be pressed, falls squarely on each and every Japanese voter who does not support measures to abolish the death penalty in the Japanese parliament.

 

■ All human life is sacred

The death penalty is a system which enables the state to systematically take the lives of those on death row. By maintaining this system, Japanese prosecutors, judges, the Minister of Justice and prison officials are tasked with the taking of a person's life. Surely the task of taking lives needs to be eliminated from all societies! The Japanese Government must realize that it can never take a human life, no matter who the accused is and no matter what the crime is.

Photograph of the former Osaka Detention Centre's penitentiary. In the past, execution was carried out by a prison guard pulling the lever (at the bottom right, centre of the photo), which caused the trap-door to fall.

 

■Avoiding the execution of innocent people

During the 1980’s in Japan, death row inmates scheduled for execution were acquitted following a retrial on four occasions. The police, prosecutors and courts had in each case, mistakenly pushed for the death penalty. In March of 2023, for the first time in the 57 years following his conviction, [希2] a decision was made to allow a retrial in the case of death row prisoner, Iwao Hakamada, who sought to have his death sentence overturned. The mistaken execution of even one innocent person cannot be permitted. To achieve this goal, the death penalty must be abolished.

 

■Moving towards a world without the death penalty

Since 1989, when the UN General Assembly adopted the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the number of countries around the world who have abolished the death penalty continues to grow.

Amnesty International reports that in 2022, 144 countries worldwide have legally or de facto abolished the death penalty, while 55 countries still maintain it.  The world is moving towards the realization of a society that "never accepts the taking of human life". It is imperative that you know that Japan still has the death penalty and continues to execute several people a year.  What we want to achieve is: "a society where the dignity of all people is protected and no lives are taken".

We hope that you will join with us in this campaign, so that Japan can join the ranks of countries without the death penalty as soon as possible. We will submit your signature to the Japanese Ministry of Justice.

The Japanese government continues to consistently carry out executions. (from the 2022 Amnesty Annual Report on the Death Penalty).

 

For more information on the death penalty, please see the following:

◆Amnesty International Japan Abolition of the death penalty
https://www.amnesty.or.jp/human-rights/topic/death_penalty/

CrimeInfo | Information website on the criminal justice system, including Japan's death penalty system.
https://www.crimeinfo.jp/

◆Mori no Ohisama Kyoshitsu: Let's think about the death penalty together
https://www.morino-ohisama.jp/about

 

Organiser
Forum 90 for the Ratification of the International Convention for the Abolition of the Death Penalty
http://www.forum90.net/forum90eng

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