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
- MARCH 2, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Yuji Kubota, a former insurance salesman who tried...
Yuji Kubota, a former insurance salesman who tried to fake his own death, was sentenced to die by the Kushiro District Court, Japan, for murdering a couple that had taken out a policy with his firm
- FEBRUARY 27, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi welcomed...
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi welcomed the decision by a Tokyo court to sentence former doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara to death for a series of crimes including the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 peop
- FEBRUARY 27, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The head of the defense team for AUM Shinrikyo founder...
The head of the defense team for AUM Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara criticized the verdict against the cult leader, saying the reasons for his being given the death penalty were unpersuasive
- FEBRUARY 26, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The widow of a subway station employee killed in Tokyo's...
The widow of a subway station employee killed in Tokyo's 1995 subway nerve-gas attack said she wished Shoko Asahara, guru of the Aum doomsday cult, could be hanged many times over
- FEBRUARY 25, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo District Court rejected a request for refugee...
The Tokyo District Court rejected a request for refugee status from a gay Iranian man who claimed that his homosexuality would be grounds for the death penalty if he was sent back to his homeland
- FEBRUARY 25, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Hiroshima High Court, Japan, upheld a lower court...
The Hiroshima High Court, Japan, upheld a lower court ruling sentencing to death Ryoji Ui for murdering Tamami Okatake, a female friend, and abandoning her body in Okayama Prefecture on August 9, 2001 while he was on parole
- FEBRUARY 19, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
China rejected Japan's call to reduce the penalty for...
China rejected Japan's call to reduce the penalty for a Japanese national sentenced to death for drug smuggling
- FEBRUARY 14, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
It was learned that a Japanese man in his 60s was sentenced...
It was learned that a Japanese man in his 60s was sentenced to death at a district court in Shenyang, north-eastern China, earlier in the month, on charges of trying to smuggle drugs to Japan
- FEBRUARY 6, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Nagoya High Court, Japan, sentenced to death Keiki...
The Nagoya High Court, Japan, sentenced to death Keiki Muto, a man convicted in a 2002 murder-and-robbery case, raising the life imprisonment penalty imposed by a lower court
- JANUARY 30, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo District Court in Japan sentenced Masami...
The Tokyo District Court in Japan sentenced Masami Tsuchiya, a former senior member of the Aum Shinri Kyo doomsday cult, to death for his role in making the poison used in a 1995 gas attack on Tokyo's subway that killed 12 people
- JANUARY 23, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling that...
The Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced Xue Song, a 30 year old Chinese national, to death for murdering a Chinese woman and her husband after the woman had rejected his advances
- DECEMBER 29, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
District and high courts across Japan sentenced a record...
District and high courts across Japan sentenced a record 30 defendants to death in 2003, while 56 death-row inmates did not appeal their sentences or lost appeals as of December 29, according to Kyodo News calculations based on court data