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
- MARCH 12, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Nagoya High Court in Japan upheld a lower court...
The Nagoya High Court in Japan upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced two men to death for murdering two women by burning them alive inside oil barrels
- MARCH 10, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
A convict on death row, who is asserting his innocence...
A convict on death row, who is asserting his innocence and seeking a retrial, met his lawyers for the first time in nearly 12 years at the Tokyo detention house
- FEBRUARY 24, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Utsunomiya District Court in Japan sentenced former...
The Utsunomiya District Court in Japan sentenced former senior crime syndicate member Ryoji Goto, 44, to death for killing a woman in Utsunomiya by injecting her with narcotics and for murdering a man by throwing him into a river in Mito
- FEBRUARY 12, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Mitsuhiro Kobayashi, 44, was sentenced to death by...
Mitsuhiro Kobayashi, 44, was sentenced to death by the Aomori District Court for setting fire to a branch office of Takefuji, a major consumer credit firm, which killed five staff members during an attempted robbery in May 2001
- FEBRUARY 7, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
A Tokyo District Court ruled that the Tokyo Detention...
A Tokyo District Court ruled that the Tokyo Detention House must allow Toshiaki Masunaga, 54, a death-row inmate, to purchase a book even though he had exceeded his allowed limit of possessions
- FEBRUARY 4, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Shizuka Kamei, head of the Diet Members' League for...
Shizuka Kamei, head of the Diet Members' League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, said he would submit to the current Diet session a bill calling for the introduction of life imprisonment without parole, adding that it would be a milestone in the ab
- JANUARY 31, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Nagasaki District Court sentenced a woman and her...
The Nagasaki District Court sentenced a woman and her lover to death for killing her husband and son in 1992 and 1998 in order to obtain life insurance money
- JANUARY 24, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Miyazaki District Court in southern Japan sentenced...
The Miyazaki District Court in southern Japan sentenced to death Yasutoshi Matsuda, 34
- JANUARY 1, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty is provided for by the Criminal Procedure...
The death penalty is provided for by the Criminal Procedure Law and by the Penal Code for a number of offenses (13) but, in practice, it is applied only for murder
- DECEMBER 20, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
A bipartisan group of Japanese lawmakers opposed to...
A bipartisan group of Japanese lawmakers opposed to capital punishment asked Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama to impose a moratorium on capital punishment for the duration of the Diet recess, the lawmakers said
- DECEMBER 18, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Kunihiko Hamakawa, 42, was sentenced to death by the...
Kunihiko Hamakawa, 42, was sentenced to death by the Tsu District Court for murdering two men and stealing approximately 12 million yen in Mie Prefecture in 1994
- DECEMBER 11, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japanese mass murderer Masumi Hayashi, who shocked...
Japanese mass murderer Masumi Hayashi, who shocked the nation when she killed four people and sickened 63 by poisoning curry served at a local festival in 1998, must be hanged, a court in Wakayama ruled
- DECEMBER 2, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Kyodo News published an interview with Masaharu Harada,...
Kyodo News published an interview with Masaharu Harada, the brother of a murder victim, whose killer Toshihiko Hasegawa had been sentenced to death and executed on December 27, 2001
- NOVEMBER 22, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Lawmakers opposed to Japan's use of the death penalty...
Lawmakers opposed to Japan's use of the death penalty revealed that they would submit to next year's Diet a bill to set up an ad hoc commission to debate whether it should be abolished
- NOVEMBER 22, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
It was revealed by group officials that the Japan Federation...
It was revealed by group officials that the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, Japan's largest bar organization, had intentions of proposing a legal moratorium on executions, the first time it has explicitly adopted a position against the death penalty
- NOVEMBER 21, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Lawmakers opposed to Japan's use of capital punishment...
Lawmakers opposed to Japan's use of capital punishment plan to submit to the 2003 Diet a bill to set up an ad hoc death penalty commission to encourage public discussions on whether or not it should be abolished, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported
- OCTOBER 31, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
An elderly man will remain on death row after the Tokyo...
An elderly man will remain on death row after the Tokyo High dismissed his appeal, ruling that a confession he gave to a 1988 double murder was unreliable but his guilt could be proved from other evidence
- OCTOBER 28, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
A former construction worker, who murdered a woman...
A former construction worker, who murdered a woman during a probation period after being released from jail on parole, has rescinded his appeal against a death sentence for his second crime
- OCTOBER 22, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Mr Patten answered on behalf of the Commission a parliamentary...
Mr Patten answered on behalf of the Commission a parliamentary question written on the execution of Mr Yoshiteru Hamada and Mr Tatsuya Haruta
- OCTOBER 11, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
A former senior member of the Japanese doomsday cult...
A former senior member of the Japanese doomsday cult which carried out a nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995 was sentenced to death
- OCTOBER 10, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
The parents of two children Ayano Moriwaki and Maki...
The parents of two children Ayano Moriwaki and Maki Sakai, both 7 years old when they died, killed in a knife attack at their school last summer spoke publicly of their anguish for the first time and demanded the death sentence for Mamoru Takuma, who is b
- OCTOBER 2, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
A loan shark who was charged with using his mistresses...
A loan shark who was charged with using his mistresses to murder two men and sicken another to collect hefty life insurance payouts was sentenced to death
- OCTOBER 1, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Shigeru Yagi, a moneylender who flaunted his wealth...
Shigeru Yagi, a moneylender who flaunted his wealth on TV and ridiculed police, was sentenced to death for murdering two acquaintances and seriously injuring another with poison and overdoses of cold medicine
- SEPTEMBER 30, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
A murder convict who strangled a bar worker after a...
A murder convict who strangled a bar worker after a quarrel then chopped her body up was handed the death sentence in a ruling that overturned a lower court decision
- SEPTEMBER 30, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Kenji Yokota, 53, was sentenced to death by the Tokyo...
Kenji Yokota, 53, was sentenced to death by the Tokyo High Court for strangling a female acquaintance in 1999
- SEPTEMBER 20, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
A man who went on a berserk rampage at JR Shimonoseki...
A man who went on a berserk rampage at JR Shimonoseki Station in 1999, killing five innocent people and injuring 10 more will hang for his crimes, a court ruled
- SEPTEMBER 19, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
The President of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary...
The President of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly firmly condemned the capital executions of Yoshiteru and Tatsuya Tamoto in Japan
- SEPTEMBER 18, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japan executed two convicted criminals, the Justice...
Japan executed two convicted criminals, the Justice Ministry said
- AUGUST 8, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
The man charged with murdering eight students and injuring...
The man charged with murdering eight students and injuring 15 others at Ikeda Primary School in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, in 2001, said he would not appeal the decision of the Osaka District Court
- AUGUST 7, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Olivier Dupuis, MEP (Lista Bonino) asked the European...
Olivier Dupuis, MEP (Lista Bonino) asked the European Commission on if it had been informed of the "serious risks" of Mori Katsuhisa being executed in the very near future