Japan
2026
- GOVERNMENT
- constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government
- CONSTITUTION
- May 3, 1947
- LEGAL SYSTEM
- based on the German model with Anglo-American influences; review of legislative acts by the Supreme Court
- LEGISLATIVE SYSTEM
- bicameral, House of Councillors (Sangi-in) and House of Representatives (Shugi-in)
- JUDICIAL SYSTEM
- Supreme Court (president appointed by the King on the recommendation of the Government, others appointed by the Government)
RELIGIONS
majority of Buddhists and Shintoists; minorities of Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox
From the country
- JUNE 15, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. LAWYERS CALL FOR SUSPENSION OF EXECUTIONS
in a letter submitted to Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations said executions should be suspended given the possibility that rulings could be mistaken, as had occurred in past cases where the death penalty had initiall
- JUNE 15, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF 2 IN FUKUSHIMA
the Fukushima District Court's Koriyama branch sentenced 57-year-old Minoru Watanabe to death for the murder of two people in 2001 in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture. The court said Watanabe played a leading role in the murders, dismissing his argument that
- JUNE 13, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH SENTENCE UPHELD FOR MAN WHO KILLED 2 IN OSAKA WHILE ON PAROLE
Japan’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Susumu Nakayama, a man who stabbed two people to death in Osaka Prefecture in 1998, seven years after he was released on parole while serving a life imprisonment sentence imposed for a separate murder an
- JUNE 9, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. PROSECUTORS DEMAND DEATH PENALTY FOR PERUVIAN MURDERER
Japanese prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Jose Manuel Torres Yagi, a Peruvian charged with killing a seven-year-old girl.
- JUNE 9, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH SENTENCES UPHELD FOR MEN WHO BURNED SISTERS TO DEATH IN METAL DRUMS
Japan’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for two men convicted of stuffing two sisters into metal drums, pouring gasoline over them and burning them to death.
- JUNE 6, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. SERIAL KILLER MIYAZAKI DECRIES HANGING IN LETTERS TO MAGAZINE EDITOR
Tsutomu Miyazaki, due to be hanged for killing four young girls in 1988 and 1989, proposed that the death penalty be carried out with drugs instead of the scaffold, a magazine editor who received letters from the convict said.
- JUNE 5, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. HIGH COURT SAYS ASAHARA CAN BE PUT TO DEATH
the Tokyo High Court rejected a defense motion against the death sentence for Shoko Asahara, the former doomsday cult leader who masterminded a 1995 Tokyo subway gassing that killed 12 people.
- MAY 24, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. AMNESTY SLAMS JAPAN ON DEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International criticized Japan's continued use of the death penalty and the system that surrounds it.
- MAY 17, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. CONVICTED QUADRUPLE KILLER DEALT DEATH PENALTY
Shojiro Nishimoto, a jobless man under indictment on charges of murdering four people in Nagano and Aichi prefectures in 2004, was handed the death penalty.
- MAY 16, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH PENALTY UPHELD FOR FUKUOKA NURSE CONVICTED OF MASTERMINDING KILLINGS
the Fukuoka High Court upheld the death sentence for a former nurse convicted of masterminding murders that she and three other nurses carried out to obtain insurance payouts.
- APRIL 14, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
COUNCIL OF EUROPE MAY EXPEL U.S., JAPAN OVER DEATH PENALTY
the United States and Japan may lose their observer status at the Council of Europe if they fail to abolish the death penalty before the end of 2006, said Konstantin Kosachyov, leader of the Russian delegation to the Council's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE
- APRIL 4, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. COURT FINALIZES DEATH SENTENCE FOR KOBE MAN
the death sentence handed down by the Kobe District Court in Japan to 66-year-old Muneteru Yamamoto for killing and robbing his cousin and his cousin's wife in July 2004 was finalized.