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, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japan's Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings sentencing...
Japan's Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings sentencing to death Seiha Fujima, 43, for killing five people during eight months in the early 1980s
- JUNE 14, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations urged the...
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations urged the Justice Ministry on not to execute death row inmates after the current Diet session ended on May 16
- JUNE 10, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Almost 70 percent of lawmakers supported a proposed...
Almost 70 percent of lawmakers supported a proposed bill to set up an ad hoc commission in the Diet to discuss capital punishment in Japan, a recent Meiji University survey showed
- JUNE 10, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Tomoko Miyazaki, a 58-year-old woman who was sentenced...
Tomoko Miyazaki, a 58-year-old woman who was sentenced to death for kidnapping and killing two young women in Toyama and Nagano prefectures in 1980, asked the Toyama District Court for a retrial in November 2003, her lawyers said
- JUNE 5, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Hiromoto Haruyama, a death row inmate who spent more...
Hiromoto Haruyama, a death row inmate who spent more than a decade fighting his conviction for the brutal rape, murder or injury inflicting of three women, died from in Sapporo Prison, police said
- MAY 29, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
At a symposium on capital punishment in Tokyo, sponsored...
At a symposium on capital punishment in Tokyo, sponsored by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, Renny Cushing, the executive director of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, also the son of a murdered man in the US, said bereaved families of
- MAY 28, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court sentenced a former doomsday cult...
The Tokyo High Court sentenced a former doomsday cult member Yoshihiro Inoue to death for a 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways, overturning a lower court ruling condemning him to life in prison
- MAY 27, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International highlighted reports of torture...
Amnesty International highlighted reports of torture and ill treatment of people while in custody in Japan
- MAY 21, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
An appeals court in Japan upheld a lower court's death...
An appeals court in Japan upheld a lower court's death sentence for Yasutoshi Matsuda, a 36-year-old man found guilty of robbing and murdering two women in Miyazaki Prefecture in 2001
- MAY 21, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Fukuoka High Court, Japan, quashed the death penalty...
The Fukuoka High Court, Japan, quashed the death penalty for Reiko Yamaguchi, a woman convicted of murdering her husband and son and reduced it to life imprisonment, saying she had been lured by her male accomplice and could be rehabilitated
- MAY 17, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court upheld a death sentence imposed...
The Tokyo High Court upheld a death sentence imposed on former senior AUM Shinrikyo member Kiyohide Hayakawa for crimes including the murders of a lawyer and his family and of an AUM member who wanted to leave the cult
- APRIL 25, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The following are some replies to questions on the...
The following are some replies to questions on the death penalty put to Kazuhiko Tokoro, specialist in criminal policy and professor emeritus at Rikkyo (St