Japan 2003
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
News on Japan in 2003
- 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
- DECEMBER 27, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Mamoru Takuma, who was earlier in 2003 sentenced to...
Mamoru Takuma, who was earlier in 2003 sentenced to death for murdering eight children at an elementary school in Osaka Prefecture in 2001, married a female supporter after his sentence was finalized
- DECEMBER 9, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court overturned the death sentence...
The Tokyo High Court overturned the death sentence against Kenji Chiba, a 56-year-old man, and sentenced him to life imprisonment
- DECEMBER 5, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court upheld the death penalty on Yasuo...
The Tokyo High Court upheld the death penalty on Yasuo Hayashi, a former senior member of the Aum Supreme Truth cult, for his role in the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system and other offenses
- NOVEMBER 13, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Philippine Supreme Court commuted the death sentence...
The Philippine Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of Hideshi Suzuki, a 47-year-old Japanese man convicted of drug trafficking, to life imprisonment
- OCTOBER 29, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo District Court, Japan, sentenced Tomomasa...
The Tokyo District Court, Japan, sentenced Tomomasa Nakagawa, a senior figure of the Aum Supreme Truth cult, to death for multiple murder in the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack and 10 other crimes
- OCTOBER 1, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Council of Europe lamented the lack of progress...
The Council of Europe lamented the lack of progress in efforts to persuade the United States and Japan to abolish the death penalty and again warned that their observer status at the pan-European rights body was at risk
- SEPTEMBER 26, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty for Mamoru Takuma, who stabbed eight...
The death penalty for Mamoru Takuma, who stabbed eight children to death and injured 15 others at Ikeda Primary School in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, in 2001, was finalised after he dismissed his lawyers' appeal of the sentence to the Osaka High Court
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama said she was still...
Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama said she was still convinced that the death penalty should be retained in Japan, days after she approved the third execution of a death row inmate while she was in office
- SEPTEMBER 13, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The death sentence of Kazumi Taga, a 53 year old Japanese...
The death sentence of Kazumi Taga, a 53 year old Japanese man, was reduced to life in prison through a plea bargain after he admitted to killing his wife and daughter
- SEPTEMBER 12, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Shinji Mukai, a 42 year old Japanese man convicted...
Shinji Mukai, a 42 year old Japanese man convicted of murdering three people, including a mother and her child, was executed by hanging in what was Japan's first execution in a year
- SEPTEMBER 12, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International Japan denounced the Justice Ministry's...
Amnesty International Japan denounced the Justice Ministry's latest execution of a prisoner, the third person to be hanged under Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama, which also drew a lawmaker protest
- SEPTEMBER 2, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Sapporo High Court in Japan overturned the death...
The Sapporo High Court in Japan overturned the death sentence given to Kazuyuki Oikawa, 26, for the murder of two children and the attempted murder of another on 8 August 2001, sentencing him to life in prison
- AUGUST 28, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
A Japanese court sentenced to death Mamoru Takuma,...
A Japanese court sentenced to death Mamoru Takuma, a 39-year-old man who killed eight children after running amok with a butcher's knife in an elementary school in 2001
- AUGUST 28, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and other...
Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and other ministers said that Mamoru Takuma, who murdered eight children and injured 13 others and two teachers in a stabbing frenzy at an Osaka elementary school, deserved the death penalty he was given by the Osa
- JULY 23, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Nine executive members of the Committee on Judicial...
Nine executive members of the Committee on Judicial Affairs of Japan's lower house of parliament visited a new execution chamber at the Tokyo Detention Centre
- JULY 22, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Asahi Shimbun Liberal Democratic Party (LPD) members...
The Asahi Shimbun Liberal Democratic Party (LPD) members in favor of capital punishment stalled a bill to set up a panel on abolishing the death penalty, before it even reached the Diet
- JULY 8, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Nagoya High Court upheld a lower court ruling sentencing...
The Nagoya High Court upheld a lower court ruling sentencing three men to death, two of whom for murdering three people to get insurance payments or money between 1994 and 1996 and the remaining one for involvement in two of the murders
- JULY 1, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Daizo Fukushima, a 78 year old Japanese man, was sentenced...
Daizo Fukushima, a 78 year old Japanese man, was sentenced to death by hanging for killing a woman and severely burning her husband after he set fire to their lodge on a chicken farm in 1989
- JUNE 10, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo District Court sentence to death Yoshio Ando,...
The Tokyo District Court sentence to death Yoshio Ando, a homeless man, for murdering three other homeless men in Tokyo in 1999
- MAY 28, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
In its annual report on the global human rights situation...
In its annual report on the global human rights situation for 2002, Amnesty International said the treatment of those on death row in Japan was brutal, inhumane and degrading
- MAY 26, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Yukiharu Fuchigami, 34, was sentenced to death by the...
Yukiharu Fuchigami, 34, was sentenced to death by the Miyazaki District Court for the 1999 murder of two acquaintances
- MAY 23, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
A group of 122 lawmakers calling for the abolition...
A group of 122 lawmakers calling for the abolition of the death penalty in Japan said they would submit a bill demanding a halt to hangings to the current Diet session in June 2003
- MAY 22, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Prosecutors demanded that Mamoru Takuma be sentenced...
Prosecutors demanded that Mamoru Takuma be sentenced to death for killing eight primary school children and wounding 15 others at Ikeda Primary School in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, in June 2001
- MAY 21, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
A Japanese court handed down the death penalty to Ryoji...
A Japanese court handed down the death penalty to Ryoji Ui, a 63-year-old man who killed a woman in 2001 while he was on parole
- MAY 19, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court upheld a death sentence for one...
The Tokyo High Court upheld a death sentence for one of five Aum Supreme Truth members who released sarin nerve gas on Tokyo subway trains
- APRIL 30, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
A man charged with brutally murdering two housewives...
A man charged with brutally murdering two housewives in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, in August and September, 2001, was sentenced to death
- APRIL 24, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Prosecutors in Japan demanded the death sentence for...
Prosecutors in Japan demanded the death sentence for the leader of the doomsday cult, Aum Supreme Truth
- APRIL 24, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japan voted against the resolution on the death penalty...
Japan voted against the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva
- APRIL 23, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court upheld the death sentence for...
The Tokyo High Court upheld the death sentence for Kazuo Shinozawa, a man convicted of burning six women to death during the robbery of a jewellery store in Utsunomiya in June 2000