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
- JANUARY 25, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
MEP Emma Bonino said she encountered a wall of silence...
MEP Emma Bonino said she encountered a wall of silence in her efforts to discuss the death penalty with Japanese authorities
- JANUARY 23, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japan and South Korea reached a basic agreement on...
Japan and South Korea reached a basic agreement on a draft of an extradition treaty, Japanese and South Korean officials said
- JANUARY 21, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
The father of murder victim Mami Takahashi called the...
The father of murder victim Mami Takahashi called the death sentence given to Hiroshi Zota, 26, on January 19 satisfactory
- JANUARY 18, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
A 26-year-old former newspaper delivery man was sentenced...
A 26-year-old former newspaper delivery man was sentenced to death for a September 1999 random stabbing spree in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district that left two people dead and six injured
- JANUARY 17, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Only 8
Only 8
- JANUARY 17, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
An inter-party group of lawmakers calling for the abolition...
An inter-party group of lawmakers calling for the abolition of the death penalty in Japan visited Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama to protest the execution of two death-row inmates in late December 2001
- JANUARY 8, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Mamoru Takuma was urged by his lawyers to reveal why...
Mamoru Takuma was urged by his lawyers to reveal why he fatally stabbed eight primary students and wounded 15 others, including teachers, at Ikeda Primary School in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, in June 2001, on the second day of his trial, which began Dec
- JANUARY 1, 2002JapanDEATH 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
- JANUARY 1, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
It is estimated that there are about 50 death-row inmates...
It is estimated that there are about 50 death-row inmates in Japan
- JANUARY 1, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Forty-three people have been executed since Japan resumed...
Forty-three people have been executed since Japan resumed capital punishment in 1993
- JANUARY 1, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Prisoners are isolated in narrow solitary cells monitored...
Prisoners are isolated in narrow solitary cells monitored by TV cameras 24 hours a day
- JANUARY 1, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
Unique among the G8 countries, in Japan the pro-hanging...
Unique among the G8 countries, in Japan the pro-hanging lobby has the legal and political establishment solidly on its side
- JANUARY 1, 2002JapanDEATH PENALTY
The 2002 World Cup soccer finals that Japan and South...
The 2002 World Cup soccer finals that Japan and South Korea co-hosted led the two countries to sign an extradition pact requiring both nations to hand over suspects in crimes that carry over a one-year prison sentence or the death penalty, upon request of
- DECEMBER 28, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International Japan condemned the [December...
Amnesty International Japan condemned the [December 27] hangings and called on the country to halt all scheduled executions and abolish the death penalty
- DECEMBER 28, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama defended the government's...
Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama defended the government's policy of not publicizing the names of death-row inmates who are executed and predicted Japan will maintain capital punishment
- DECEMBER 27, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
A former Japanese mental patient charged with stabbing...
A former Japanese mental patient charged with stabbing eight schoolchildren to death in June pleaded guilty, saying he wanted to pay for the brutal crime with his life
- DECEMBER 27, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japan hanged two male death row inmates, Japan's first...
Japan hanged two male death row inmates, Japan's first executions in 13 months and the first under the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
- DECEMBER 25, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
A right-wing activist will be sent to the gallows after...
A right-wing activist will be sent to the gallows after an appeal court overruled a life term handed down at a district court
- DECEMBER 19, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
An appeal court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced...
An appeal court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a former newspaper deliveryman to death for murdering a woman and her elderly mother in Tokyo after they refused to lend him money
- DECEMBER 18, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Utsunomiya District Court sentenced to death a...
The Utsunomiya District Court sentenced to death a 35-year-old man for murdering his wife and an acquaintance in the late 1980s in Tochigi Prefecture
- DECEMBER 13, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Presiding Judge Yoshimasa Kawabe of the Tokyo High...
Presiding Judge Yoshimasa Kawabe of the Tokyo High Court affirmed the Tokyo District Court's 1998 death sentence against Kazuaki Okazaki, 41, finding him guilty of killing in 1989 Yokohama lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, 33, his wife Satoko, 29, and their 1-yea
- DECEMBER 4, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Shizuka Kamei, a former policy chief of the ruling...
Shizuka Kamei, a former policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and seven other lawmakers belonging to a group opposing capital punishment asked Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama not to carry out any further death sentences
- DECEMBER 3, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court upheld a death sentence for a man...
The Supreme Court upheld a death sentence for a man who killed four members of a family in 1992 in a murder-robbery when he was a minor
- NOVEMBER 20, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Osaka District Court sentenced Susumu Nakayama...
The Osaka District Court sentenced Susumu Nakayama a 53-year-old murderer to death for fatally stabbing Takemitsu Kikugawa, 37, his lover Minako Kobuchi, 40, a restaurant employee, on a street in Toyonaka in the Osaka prefecture, on February 19, 1998 with
- NOVEMBER 2, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Shizuka Kamei, a former policy chief of the ruling...
Shizuka Kamei, a former policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was elected head of a group of 76 Diet members who want to abolish the death penalty in Japan
- OCTOBER 18, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japan must abolish the death penalty in order to eliminate...
Japan must abolish the death penalty in order to eliminate the possibility of people mistakenly being put to death on false charges, senior Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker Shizuka Kamei said
- OCTOBER 10, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Fukuoka High Court upheld a death penalty given...
The Fukuoka High Court upheld a death penalty given to a 63-year-old man for abducting and murdering two elementary school girls in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1992
- SEPTEMBER 27, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Osaka High Court upheld a death sentence against...
The Osaka High Court upheld a death sentence against a former gang leader for robbing and murdering a wealthy man and his daughter in Kobe and later burning their bodies in 1991
- SEPTEMBER 25, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court upheld a death sentence for a man...
The Supreme Court upheld a death sentence for a man who killed and robbed two workmates
- SEPTEMBER 17, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Kawasaki branch of Yokohama District Court sentenced...
The Kawasaki branch of Yokohama District Court sentenced a Chinese man to death for a murder-robbery in 1999 in which three Chinese were stabbed to death and another three injured