5/2/2002 On Japan´s death row, any day could be the last (2)

....Analysts, though, cited cultural differences and said the U.S. practice - setting the date far ahead of time - could also be considered cruel since it lengthens the period in which prisoners live with the awareness of when they will die."Most Japanese would also find it very hard to tell somebody ahead of time when they would die," said social commentator Akio Ono.Despite this, support for the death penalty is strong, bolstered by crimes such as the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 and made thousands ill.A 1999 survey, the most recent available, found that some 80% of Japanese were in favor of capital punishment.Many appeared to favor the classic argument used by death penalty proponents - that the threat of hanging deters crimes.Lawmaker Kamei, a former policeman, disagreed. "Then serious crimes should be way down in Japan and the United States. But, at least here, they are rising rapidly."Based on his experience, he said, a more crucial concern was mistakes that result in an innocent person being put to death.This is a particular worry in Japan, where nearly 99% of criminal trials end with conviction and reliance on confessions is high.However, suspects may be held by police for as many as 23 days before indictment and are not guaranteed the presence of a lawyer for all interrogations."There´s the chance of a situation developing where the prisoner just repeats back what the questioner says," Kamei said. "I have seen this frightening thing a number of times."In one case, Sakae Menda was wrongly convicted of murder and spent 32 years on death row until a retrial in 1983 made him Japan´s first prisoner awaiting execution to be freed.Yet there is little public debate on the issue.Bonino, who visited Tokyo last month, said this was due largely to a lack of transparency.Such is the veil of secrecy over executions in Japan that it was not until several years ago that the government would even confirm prisoners had been put to death."When there is no public debate and transparency is zero, more and more you will have public opinion in favor of the death penalty," she said. "At the least, we must have more openness."Lawmakers in the group headed by Kamei hope to provoke debate by preparing a bill to abolish the death penalty for eventual submission to parliament. The last similar move occurred in 1956."Before the current parliamentary session ends (in June) we want to finish preparing this," lawmaker Nobuto Hosaka said.But any such bill would face an uphill fight. Of a total 727 lawmakers, only around 100 are in the group."I believe there are others in parliament who think the same way, but given the strong public support for the death penalty, coming out against it publicly is full of minuses," Hosaka said."But if we don´t try, nothing will change." (Reuters News)Click the link below to view this article and related discussions on Japan Todayhttp://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&id=195312