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 26, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: HANGED EX-AUM MEMBER URGED WOULD-BE TERRORISTS TO HALT ATTACKS
A former senior Aum Shinrikyo member wrote a letter in English urging would-be terrorists not to carry out their planned attacks before he was executed in 2018 for his involvement in the cult's 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.
MARCH 19, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: CARE HOME MASS MURDERER WILL NOT APPEAL DEATH PENALTY RULING
A Japanese man who was sentenced to death over the 2016 murder of 19 mentally impaired people at a care home near Tokyo said on 18 March 2020 he will not appeal the ruling.
- MARCH 16, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN: DEATH PENALTY FOR MASS KILLING AT CARE HOME FOR DISABLED
A court in Japan on 16 March 2020 sentenced a man to death by hanging for the murder of 19 people at a care center for disabled people.
JANUARY 27, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: HIGH COURT SCRAPS MAN'S DEATH SENTENCE OVER 2015 MURDERS OF FIVE
A high court scrapped on 27 January 2020 a lower court ruling that sentenced a man to death for killing five people on Awaji Island in 2015 and gave him life in prison instead after reviewing his mental state at the time.
JANUARY 21, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: GOVERNMENT POLL SHOWS 81% APPROVE DEATH PENALTY
A Japanese government survey shows about 80 percent of respondents support maintaining the death penalty.
- JANUARY 1, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty in Japan is provided for 13 crimes
The death penalty in Japan is provided for 13 crimes
- DECEMBER 27, 2019JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN: CHINESE MAN HANGED OVER MURDER OF FAMILY OF FOUR
Japan on 26 December 2019 hanged a Chinese man convicted of the murder of a family of four whose bodies were found handcuffed and weighted down with dumbbells in a bay, the justice minister said.
DECEMBER 16, 2019JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: EX-POLICEMAN SENTENCED TO DEATH OVER 2017 MURDER OF WIFE, 2 KIDS
A court sentenced a former policeman to death on 13 December 2019 for choking his wife and two children to death at their home in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, in June 2017.
DECEMBER 6, 2019JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: HIGH COURT CHANGES PERUVIAN MAN'S DEATH SENTENCE TO LIFE IN PRISON
The Tokyo High Court overturned a lower court’s death sentence and gave a Peruvian man life in prison on 5 December 2019 over the 2015 murder of six people in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2019JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: FATHER OF KILLED SON ON CRUSADE FOR ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY
Once filled with hatred and anger toward a truck driver who killed his son, Tadaari Katayama now is an unlikely anti-death penalty advocate.
- AUGUST 2, 2019JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN: 2 DEATH-ROW INMATES HANGED, 1ST EXECUTIONS THIS YEAR
Japan hanged two death-row inmates on 2 August 2019 morning, the Justice Ministry said, in the country's first executions this year.
- JULY 12, 2019JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING 5 NEIGHBORS IN YAMAGUCHI LOSES FINAL APPEAL
The Supreme Court on 11 July 2019 upheld a 2016 ruling by the Hiroshima High Court denying an appeal by a 69-year-old man sentenced to death for the murders of five people in the mountain hamlet of Shunan, Yamaguchi Prefecture, in July 2013.