26/01/2002TOKYO, Jan. 26 Kyodo By: Marx Coronel

A Japanese lawmaker and a visiting Italian campaigner againstcapital punishment called Friday for ’’more transparency’’ in Japan’sdeath penalty system. Nobuto Hosaka from the opposition Social Democratic Party andEmma Bonino said Japan needs to disclose more information and toconduct public and parliamentary debates on the issue. Hosaka and Bonino called for all Justice Ministry decisions onthe carrying out of death sentences to be made public and forrelatives and lawyers to be informed days before an execution. ’’When there is no public debate and transparency is zero, moreand more you will lack public opinion (against) death penalty,’’Bonino told a new conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club ofJapan in Tokyo. Executions, said to be done by hanging, are usually carried outunannounced in Japan, often in times when they are least likely toattract publicity. The Justice Ministry does not even disclose thenames of those it executes. Aside from the secrecy of executions, death row inmatesthemselves are liable to be executed at any time, whenever thejustice minister signs the order, Hosaka and Bonino said. On a visit to a death row prison in Tokyo the same day, Hosakasaid the chief warden told him and Bonino that executions areconducted within five days of the justice minister’s order. Hosaka added that the warden said executions are held by noon onan appointed day and inmates are usually informed only hours beforethey are put to death. Not only do inmates not know when they will be executed, butthey are also confined in small solitary cells and prevented fromcommunal activities, as well as having visits limited to families andlawyers, Hosaka and Bonino said. ’’(The Japan Parliamentary League Against the Death Penalty) arediscussing...to submit to the Diet for the first time in 50 years...abill advocating the abolishment of the death penalty before thecurrent Diet session ends,’’ said Hosaka, who is the secretarygeneral of the inter-party group of 98 lawmakers. Hosoka said requests to meet one of the 28 death row inmates atthe prison and to inspect its execution site were refused by atop-ranking Justice Ministry bureaucrat on Friday morning. Hosaka said Keiichi Tadaki failed to give any concrete reasonfor the refusal and instead instructed the two to go and see thepremises of the detention house in Adachi Ward and talk to officialsthere. At the detention house, the same requests were turned down bythe chief warden, who said a meeting with Bonino and Hosaka could’’disturb the peace of mind’’ of the death row inmates. Bonino and Hosaka were instead shown an empty cell for death rowinmates. Bonino, a former European Union commissioner on human rights, isin Tokyo to promote abolition of the death penalty, the core missionof ’’Hands Off Cain,’’ an international nongovernmental organization(NGO) composed of civilians and lawmakers founded in 1993. Bonino said the Brussels-based NGO is working for the UnitedNations to adopt a moratorium on executions by next year to helpcountries using capital punishment to revise their stand on the deathpenalty and to raise public awareness on the issue. Currently 128 countries have abolished the capital punishmentbut 69 countries, including the United States and Japan, stillconduct executions, she said.