A group of Japanese lawmakers asked Justice Minister...

A group of Japanese lawmakers asked Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama to clear the way for abolishing the death penalty.
"The government often carries out capital punishment while the Diet is adjourned," Shizuka Kamei, head of the Diet Members' League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, told Moriyama immediately after the current 192-day session ended earlier in the day.
"Last year, the government enforced the sentence after we had made our request. It should never be repeated," said Kamei, a heavyweight in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Moriyama did not discuss the rights and wrongs of capital punishment, nor did she say anything about the likelihood of executions this year, according to Nobuto Hosaka, a Social Democratic Party lawmaker as well as an active member of the group.
The bipartisan parliamentary league was formed in April 1994 and has 120 members.