Japan 2006
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
News on Japan in 2006
- AUGUST 18, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. HIGH COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE FOR EX-AUM SENIOR MEMBER
the Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court's death sentence for former AUM Shinrikyo senior member Masami Tsuchiya for producing nerve gas used in the cult's mass murder of 20 people.
- JUNE 29, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. PSYCHIATRIST BACKS SHOKO ASAHARA
Shoko Asahara, the Aum Supreme Truth founder sentenced to death over a 1995 nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway, is mentally unfit and shows no reaction to his children, psychiatrist Haruo Akimoto said.
- JUNE 27, 2006ChinaDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH SENTENCE FINALISED FOR MAN IN MURDER-ROBBERY CASE
Japan's Supreme Court finalised a death sentence for a Chinese man by upholding a high court ruling on him over a murder-robbery on May 25...
- JUNE 27, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH SENTENCE FOR HOMELESS MAN COMMUTED TO LIFE
the Tokyo High Court commuted the death penalty of Yoshio Ando to life in prison for the 1999 murders of three homeless men in Tokyo, citing his ''diminished'' mental capacity at the time of the crime due to the influence of amphetamines.
- JUNE 20, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. SUPREME COURT ASKS FOR DEATH PENALTY FOR YOUNG KILLER
Japan's Supreme Court asked a lower court to consider the death penalty for a man who was a minor when he killed a young mother and baby girl.
- JUNE 15, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. LAWYERS CALL FOR SUSPENSION OF EXECUTIONS
in a letter submitted to Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations said executions should be suspended given the possibility that rulings could be mistaken, as had occurred in past cases where the death penalty had initiall
- JUNE 15, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF 2 IN FUKUSHIMA
the Fukushima District Court's Koriyama branch sentenced 57-year-old Minoru Watanabe to death for the murder of two people in 2001 in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture. The court said Watanabe played a leading role in the murders, dismissing his argument that
- JUNE 13, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH SENTENCE UPHELD FOR MAN WHO KILLED 2 IN OSAKA WHILE ON PAROLE
Japan’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Susumu Nakayama, a man who stabbed two people to death in Osaka Prefecture in 1998, seven years after he was released on parole while serving a life imprisonment sentence imposed for a separate murder an
- JUNE 9, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. PROSECUTORS DEMAND DEATH PENALTY FOR PERUVIAN MURDERER
Japanese prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Jose Manuel Torres Yagi, a Peruvian charged with killing a seven-year-old girl.
- JUNE 9, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH SENTENCES UPHELD FOR MEN WHO BURNED SISTERS TO DEATH IN METAL DRUMS
Japan’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for two men convicted of stuffing two sisters into metal drums, pouring gasoline over them and burning them to death.
- JUNE 6, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. SERIAL KILLER MIYAZAKI DECRIES HANGING IN LETTERS TO MAGAZINE EDITOR
Tsutomu Miyazaki, due to be hanged for killing four young girls in 1988 and 1989, proposed that the death penalty be carried out with drugs instead of the scaffold, a magazine editor who received letters from the convict said.
- JUNE 5, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. HIGH COURT SAYS ASAHARA CAN BE PUT TO DEATH
the Tokyo High Court rejected a defense motion against the death sentence for Shoko Asahara, the former doomsday cult leader who masterminded a 1995 Tokyo subway gassing that killed 12 people.
- MAY 24, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. AMNESTY SLAMS JAPAN ON DEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International criticized Japan's continued use of the death penalty and the system that surrounds it.
- MAY 17, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. CONVICTED QUADRUPLE KILLER DEALT DEATH PENALTY
Shojiro Nishimoto, a jobless man under indictment on charges of murdering four people in Nagano and Aichi prefectures in 2004, was handed the death penalty.
- MAY 16, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH PENALTY UPHELD FOR FUKUOKA NURSE CONVICTED OF MASTERMINDING KILLINGS
the Fukuoka High Court upheld the death sentence for a former nurse convicted of masterminding murders that she and three other nurses carried out to obtain insurance payouts.
- APRIL 14, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
COUNCIL OF EUROPE MAY EXPEL U.S., JAPAN OVER DEATH PENALTY
the United States and Japan may lose their observer status at the Council of Europe if they fail to abolish the death penalty before the end of 2006, said Konstantin Kosachyov, leader of the Russian delegation to the Council's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE
- APRIL 4, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. COURT FINALIZES DEATH SENTENCE FOR KOBE MAN
the death sentence handed down by the Kobe District Court in Japan to 66-year-old Muneteru Yamamoto for killing and robbing his cousin and his cousin's wife in July 2004 was finalized.
- MARCH 29, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH SENTENCE UPHELD FOR 71 YEAR OLD
the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence handed down to Kazutoshi Takahashi, a 71-year-old man, for a 1998 double-murder in Yokohama.
- MARCH 28, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. TOKYO HIGH COURT REJECTS ASAHARA'S APPEAL OF DEATH SENTENCE
the Tokyo High Court rejected former doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara's appeal of his death sentence, bringing him a step closer to hanging for a nerve gas attack on Tokyo and other assaults that killed 27 and injured thousands
- MARCH 21, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH SENTENCE METED VIA NEW FAST-TRACK PROCESS
the Kobe District Court sentenced 65-year-old Mineteru Yamamoto to death for robbing and killing a couple in 2004 in what was believed to be the first death sentence handed down by a court through streamlined trial procedures.
- MARCH 16, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH SENTENCE UPHELD ON GANGSTER FOR KILLING 4 IN BAR SHOOTING
the Tokyo High Court upheld the death sentence imposed on Masato Kohinata for killing a rival gang member and three bystanders in a shooting at a bar in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, in 2003.
- MARCH 16, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. EX-AUM MEMBER APPEALS HIGH COURT'S UPHOLDING OF DEATH SENTENCE
Tomomitsu Niimi, a former senior member of the cult formerly called AUM Shinrikyo, appealed a high court's decision that upheld the death sentence handed down against him for his involvement in a series of crimes including the deadly sarin gas attack on t
- MARCH 15, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. 30% OF POLLED DEATH ROW INMATES HAVE NO ONE TO VISIT THEM
nearly 30 percent of death row inmates polled in Japan had no one to visit them, a survey conducted by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations showed. The survey was given to 79 inmates as of January 2006 and 58 people responded.
- MARCH 15, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. TOKYO HIGH COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE ON AUM'S NIIMI
the Tokyo High Court rejected an appeal by former doomsday cult member Tomomitsu Niimi convicted in attacks including the 1995 Tokyo nerve gassing that killed 12 people.
- MARCH 2, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE ON MAN FOR KILLING, ROBBING 2 WOMEN
Japan’s Supreme Court upheld a death sentence on Masami Toyoda, a 62-year-old man, for killing two women in murder-robbery cases in the 1990s.
- MARCH 1, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. KEY MAN IN JAPANESE DOOMSDAY CULT APPEALS DEATH SENTENCE
Tomomasa Nakagawa, key member of the doomsday cult who allegedly prepared the nerve gas for the deadly attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, began an appeal against his death sentence.
- FEBRUARY 24, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH SENTENCE UPHELD FOR MAN CONVICTED OF TWO MURDERS
Japan’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Masuo Yamaguchi, convicted of two murders and robbery in 1994 and 1995 in Gifu and Mie prefectures.
- FEBRUARY 20, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. CULT LEADER FIT TO APPEAL AGAINST DEATH SENTENCE
Shoko Asahara, the former leader of the cult responsible for the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway moved a step closer to the gallows when a psychiatrist ruled that he was mentally fit to continue his appeal against the death penalty.
- FEBRUARY 14, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. TOP COURT LETS DEATH PENALTY STAND FOR FORMER RIGHT-WINGER
the Supreme Court rejected an appeal against the death penalty for Takehiko Tanaka, a 42-year-old former right-wing group member found guilty of murdering two men in 1992 and 1994, letting stand a high court ruling in favour of capital punishment.
- FEBRUARY 2, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. DEATH PENALTY CONFIRMED FOR TSUTOMU MIYAZAKI
Japan's top court confirmed the death penalty for Tsutomu Miyazaki, a man who abducted and murdered four small girls. Miyazaki, 43, had admitted killing the four girls, aged between 4 and 7, in and around Tokyo in the late 1980s.