Japan
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 1
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · The death penalty is provided for by the Criminal Procedure...
- News items in the archive
- 739
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Japan is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 1 the year before. The archive holds 739 news items on Japan, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- OCTOBER 25, 2022JapanDEATH PENALTY
DEATH ROW PRISONERS LAUNCH LEGAL CHALLENGE TO JAPAN’S NO-NOTICE EXECUTIONS
Two prisoners sentenced to death in Japan have launched a legal challenge against how the country applies the death penalty, Vatican News reported on 24 October 2022.
- SEPTEMBER 22, 2022Myanmar (Burma)DEATH PENALTY
JAPAN TO STOP MYANMAR MILITARY TRAINING OVER JUNTA’S EXECUTION OF ACTIVISTS
Japan’s defense ministry said on 22 September 2022 it will halt training for members of Myanmar’s military from next year over the junta’s executions of pro-democracy activists.
- JULY 26, 2022JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN EXECUTES PRISONER WHO KILLED 7 IN TOKYO STREET RAMPAGE
Japan on 26 July 2022 executed a man who killed seven people in a vehicle crash and stabbing rampage in a crowded Tokyo shopping district in 2008.
DECEMBER 21, 2021JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: THREE PRISONERS EXECUTED IN FIRST HANGINGS SINCE 2019
Japan hanged three prisoners on 21 December 2021, its first executions in two years, with the government saying it was necessary to maintain capital punishment in the face of continued "atrocious crimes".
- NOVEMBER 7, 2021JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN: DEATH ROW INMATES SUE OVER SAME-DAY EXECUTIONS
Two death row inmates in Japan are taking legal action against same-day executions.
- SEPTEMBER 23, 2021JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN: EX-COP'S DEATH PENALTY UPHELD OVER MURDER OF WIFE, CHILDREN
A high court denied on 15 September 2021 an appeal lodged by the defense of a former policeman who a lower court ruled should be put to death for the murder of his wife and 2 children at their southwestern Japan home in June 2017.
SEPTEMBER 13, 2021JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: GANG BOSS SENTENCED TO DEATH AFTER GROUP MEMBERS ATTACKED CIVILIANS
A district court in Japan on 24 August 2021 sentenced the head of a gangster organization to death after its members killed one civilian and injured three others.
JULY 8, 2021JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF WIFE AND 5 KIDS
A 36-year-old man on 30 June 2021 was sentenced to death in Japan for killing his wife and five children at their home in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, in 2017.
JULY 5, 2021JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: TOP COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY FOR 'BLACK WIDOW' SERIAL KILLER
The Supreme Court on 29 June 2021 upheld the death sentence given to a 74-year-old woman dubbed the “black widow” for murdering her husband and two common-law partners with poison in western Japan between 2012 and 2013 to inherit money and escape debt.
JUNE 25, 2021JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DRIVING TRUCK INTO ROAD CLEANERS IN FUKUSHIMA
A man convicted of killing two road cleaners in the Fukushima Prefecture town of Miharu in May last year by ramming into them with a truck was sentenced to death at the Koriyama branch of the Fukushima District Court on 24 June 2021.
JANUARY 6, 2021JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: DEATH SENTENCE FINALIZED FOR 'TWITTER KILLER'
The death sentence for a 30-year-old man dubbed Japan’s “Twitter killer” over the serial murders of nine people in Kanagawa Prefecture in 2017 was finalized on 5 January 2021, court officials said.
DECEMBER 29, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: NO DEATH PENALTIES CARRIED OUT IN 2020 FOR FIRST TIME IN 9 YEARS
There have been no executions of death row inmates in Japan throughout 2020, making it the first time in nine years where capital punishment was not carried out in the country.
DECEMBER 24, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: SUPREME COURT ALLOWS RETRIAL FOR ‘LONGEST’ DEATH ROW PRISONER
Japan’s highest court has upheld a ruling granting a retrial to a man described as the world’s longest-serving death row inmate.
DECEMBER 15, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDERS OF NINE PEOPLE CONTACTED VIA TWITTER
Tokyo district court on 15 December 2020 sentenced a man to death for the 2017 murders of nine people, local media reported, ending a case that grabbed headlines in Japan with the culprit dubbed “Twitter killer” for contacting victims via the social media
DECEMBER 11, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: MAN GIVEN DEATH SENTENCE FOR 2018 MURDERS OF FIVE IN KAGOSHIMA
A court on 11 December 2020 sentenced a 41-year-old man to death for murdering five people in 2018 at a home in the prefecture of Kagoshima.
- OCTOBER 22, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN: JUSTICE MINISTRY TO NOTIFY VICTIMS OF DEATH ROW EXECUTIONS
The Justice Ministry on 21 October 2020 introduced a system in which the executions of death row inmates are reported to victims of criminal cases via document or phone if they wish.
OCTOBER 19, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: MAN ON DEATH ROW SINCE 1999 DIES AT 88
An 88-year-old man on death row since 1999 for committing three murders died of pneumonia on 17 October 2020 morning at the Tokyo Detention Center.
MARCH 31, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: DEATH PENALTY FINALIZED FOR 2016 SAGAMIHARA CARE HOME MASS MURDERER
The death sentence for a man who admitted to the 2016 mass murder of 19 mentally impaired people at a care home near Tokyo was finalized on 31 March 2020 after he withdrew his appeal the previous day.
MARCH 26, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: HANGED EX-AUM MEMBER URGED WOULD-BE TERRORISTS TO HALT ATTACKS
A former senior Aum Shinrikyo member wrote a letter in English urging would-be terrorists not to carry out their planned attacks before he was executed in 2018 for his involvement in the cult's 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.
- MARCH 19, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN: CARE HOME MASS MURDERER WILL NOT APPEAL DEATH PENALTY RULING
A Japanese man who was sentenced to death over the 2016 murder of 19 mentally impaired people at a care home near Tokyo said on 18 March 2020 he will not appeal the ruling.
- MARCH 16, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN: DEATH PENALTY FOR MASS KILLING AT CARE HOME FOR DISABLED
A court in Japan on 16 March 2020 sentenced a man to death by hanging for the murder of 19 people at a care center for disabled people.
JANUARY 27, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: HIGH COURT SCRAPS MAN'S DEATH SENTENCE OVER 2015 MURDERS OF FIVE
A high court scrapped on 27 January 2020 a lower court ruling that sentenced a man to death for killing five people on Awaji Island in 2015 and gave him life in prison instead after reviewing his mental state at the time.
JANUARY 21, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: GOVERNMENT POLL SHOWS 81% APPROVE DEATH PENALTY
A Japanese government survey shows about 80 percent of respondents support maintaining the death penalty.
- JANUARY 1, 2020JapanDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty in Japan is provided for 13 crimes
The death penalty in Japan is provided for 13 crimes
- DECEMBER 27, 2019JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN: CHINESE MAN HANGED OVER MURDER OF FAMILY OF FOUR
Japan on 26 December 2019 hanged a Chinese man convicted of the murder of a family of four whose bodies were found handcuffed and weighted down with dumbbells in a bay, the justice minister said.
DECEMBER 16, 2019JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: EX-POLICEMAN SENTENCED TO DEATH OVER 2017 MURDER OF WIFE, 2 KIDS
A court sentenced a former policeman to death on 13 December 2019 for choking his wife and two children to death at their home in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, in June 2017.
DECEMBER 6, 2019JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: HIGH COURT CHANGES PERUVIAN MAN'S DEATH SENTENCE TO LIFE IN PRISON
The Tokyo High Court overturned a lower court’s death sentence and gave a Peruvian man life in prison on 5 December 2019 over the 2015 murder of six people in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2019JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: FATHER OF KILLED SON ON CRUSADE FOR ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY
Once filled with hatred and anger toward a truck driver who killed his son, Tadaari Katayama now is an unlikely anti-death penalty advocate.
- AUGUST 2, 2019JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN: 2 DEATH-ROW INMATES HANGED, 1ST EXECUTIONS THIS YEAR
Japan hanged two death-row inmates on 2 August 2019 morning, the Justice Ministry said, in the country's first executions this year.
- JULY 12, 2019JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING 5 NEIGHBORS IN YAMAGUCHI LOSES FINAL APPEAL
The Supreme Court on 11 July 2019 upheld a 2016 ruling by the Hiroshima High Court denying an appeal by a 69-year-old man sentenced to death for the murders of five people in the mountain hamlet of Shunan, Yamaguchi Prefecture, in July 2013.