Japan 2004
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
News on Japan in 2004
- DECEMBER 29, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
a record 42 defendants were sentenced to death in 2004 by courts in Japan
a record 42 defendants were sentenced to death in 2004 by courts in Japan
- DECEMBER 14, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
the Japanese Supreme Court upheld a death sentence for Nobuyuki Sawamoto
the Japanese Supreme Court upheld a death sentence for Nobuyuki Sawamoto
- DECEMBER 3, 2004ChinaDEATH PENALTY
a court in Shanghai handed down a suspended death sentence
a court in Shanghai handed down a suspended death sentence
- NOVEMBER 20, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
the Supreme Court of Japan upheld lower court rulings sentencing Haruno Sakamoto
the Supreme Court of Japan upheld lower court rulings sentencing Haruno Sakamoto
- OCTOBER 29, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court scrapped a lower court ruling...
The Tokyo High Court scrapped a lower court ruling that sentenced Masahito Sakamoto to life imprisonment for brutally murdering a girl then demanding ransom from her family, and ordered that he be executed for his crime
- OCTOBER 7, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations started its...
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations started its annual human rights meeting in Miyazaki, southwestern Japan, focusing mainly on the issue of capital punishment
- OCTOBER 7, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
There were no defined lines when it came to sentencing...
There were no defined lines when it came to sentencing a person to capital punishment or life imprisonment, and the decision was largely up to the judge to make, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) said, adding that it could not say for certai
- OCTOBER 1, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
In a book titled 'He Who Killed my Brother and Me'...
In a book titled 'He Who Killed my Brother and Me' Masaru Harada recalled how he was shocked and wanted revenge at the beginning when his brother was killed, but later on realised how the execution was not the solution
- SEPTEMBER 24, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
A Japanese court sentenced to death Yoshida, a 45-year-old...
A Japanese court sentenced to death Yoshida, a 45-year-old former nurse, for masterminding a plot with fellow nurses to murder their husbands for insurance money
- SEPTEMBER 22, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Toshio Hosoya was sentenced to death at the Akita District...
Toshio Hosoya was sentenced to death at the Akita District Court in Japan for killing his wife and her mother to obtain insurance money
- SEPTEMBER 17, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa said the ministry would...
Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa said the ministry would continue to maintain its policy of withholding the names of executed inmates, after it hanged two people on September 14
- SEPTEMBER 14, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japan hanged two men convicted of murder including...
Japan hanged two men convicted of murder including a former psychiatric patient who stabbed eight children to death in 2001 in the country's worst school massacre
- SEPTEMBER 9, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court of Japan upheld the death sentence...
The Supreme Court of Japan upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of murdering and robbing two people in separate incidents in Shiga Prefecture 15 years ago
- SEPTEMBER 1, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Iwao Hakamada, 68, former professional boxer on death...
Iwao Hakamada, 68, former professional boxer on death row, filed an appeal for a retrial with the Japanese Supreme Court after the Tokyo High Court rejected his request on August 27
- SEPTEMBER 1, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Keishi Nago, a 34-year-old man who was sentenced to...
Keishi Nago, a 34-year-old man who was sentenced to death by the Kagoshima District Court on June 18 for murdering his brother Hirofumi, 44, Hirofumi's wife Kazumi, 40, and their daughter Chihiro, 17, on Tokunoshima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, in August
- AUGUST 31, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Masumi Hayashi, given the death sentence for murdering...
Masumi Hayashi, given the death sentence for murdering four people with poisoned curry in 1998 in Wakayama, said she decided to end her silence in court because she had never expected to face such a sentence
- AUGUST 27, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court rejected a plea for a retrial...
The Tokyo High Court rejected a plea for a retrial by Iwao Hakamada, a former professional boxer who had been on death row for 36 years for the 1966 murder of a family of four in Shizuoka Prefecture, upholding a lower court decision to reject the request
- AUGUST 27, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
In their closing argument at the Hiroshima District...
In their closing argument at the Hiroshima District Court, Japan, prosecutors pushed for the death penalty for Kiyotaka Oyama, 43, saying he ''planned how to spend insurance money even before the death of his stepfather, which is disgustingly inhumane
- JULY 28, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
A Japanese court upheld death sentences against two...
A Japanese court upheld death sentences against two Aum Supreme Truth cult members for spreading deadly Sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway in 1995, killing 12 people
- JULY 6, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling that...
The Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced former gangster Ryoji Goto to death for killing two people in two separate cases
- JUNE 27, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
People who had had experience dealing with death row...
People who had had experience dealing with death row inmates told a symposium in Tokyo that they believed such criminals could be rehabilitated
- JUNE 25, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japan's Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that...
Japan's Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced three men to death for the kidnapping of three people and murder of two of them between 1986 and 1991
- JUNE 18, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Kagoshima District Court, Japan, sentenced Keishi...
The Kagoshima District Court, Japan, sentenced Keishi Nago to death for stabbing to death his sister-in-law and her daughter and seriously injuring her son in 2002
- JUNE 18, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Masumi Hayashi, facing the death sentence for murdering...
Masumi Hayashi, facing the death sentence for murdering four people with poisoned curry at a 1998 community festival in Wakayama, denied the charges in an appeal hearing, breaking more than five years of silence
- JUNE 15, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japan's Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings sentencing...
Japan's Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings sentencing to death Seiha Fujima, 43, for killing five people during eight months in the early 1980s
- JUNE 14, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations urged the...
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations urged the Justice Ministry on not to execute death row inmates after the current Diet session ended on May 16
- JUNE 10, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Almost 70 percent of lawmakers supported a proposed...
Almost 70 percent of lawmakers supported a proposed bill to set up an ad hoc commission in the Diet to discuss capital punishment in Japan, a recent Meiji University survey showed
- JUNE 10, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Tomoko Miyazaki, a 58-year-old woman who was sentenced...
Tomoko Miyazaki, a 58-year-old woman who was sentenced to death for kidnapping and killing two young women in Toyama and Nagano prefectures in 1980, asked the Toyama District Court for a retrial in November 2003, her lawyers said
- JUNE 5, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
Hiromoto Haruyama, a death row inmate who spent more...
Hiromoto Haruyama, a death row inmate who spent more than a decade fighting his conviction for the brutal rape, murder or injury inflicting of three women, died from in Sapporo Prison, police said
- MAY 29, 2004JapanDEATH PENALTY
At a symposium on capital punishment in Tokyo, sponsored...
At a symposium on capital punishment in Tokyo, sponsored by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, Renny Cushing, the executive director of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, also the son of a murdered man in the US, said bereaved families of