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
- SEPTEMBER 17, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The families of those killed in June knife killings...
The families of those killed in June knife killings at Ikeda Elementary School in Osaka Prefecture presented prosecutors with a petition of about 620,000 names calling for defendant Mamoru Takuma to be executed, the families said
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
An appeal against the death sentence handed down to...
An appeal against the death sentence handed down to one of the Tokyo twins who brutally killed two men to take over their successful S&M club business in 1995 was rejected by the Tokyo High Court
- JULY 30, 2001JapanDEATH 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
- JULY 9, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Nagoya District Court sentenced one of three defendants...
The Nagoya District Court sentenced one of three defendants to death for killing four men over a period of eleven days in 1994 in the Gifu, Aichi and Osaka prefectures
- JUNE 28, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court upheld a 1997 lower court ruling...
The Tokyo High Court upheld a 1997 lower court ruling that sentenced Tsutomu Miyazaki, a former printing shop assistant, to death for the murder of four girls in 1988-1989 in Tokyo and the neighboring Saitama Prefecture
- JUNE 25, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Council of Europe endorsed an in-house report calling...
The Council of Europe endorsed an in-house report calling for the abolition of the death penalty in Japan and the United States, putting at risk their observer status in the 43-member organization dedicated to the promotion of democracy and human rights
- JUNE 21, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Sakae Menda, 76, a former Japanese death row inmate...
Sakae Menda, 76, a former Japanese death row inmate who had spent 32 years on death row for a crime he did not commit, appealed to do away with capital punishment worldwide at the opening of the first world congress against the death penalty in Strasbourg
- JUNE 20, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Miyazaki District Court sentenced a 44-year-old...
The Miyazaki District Court sentenced a 44-year-old woman to death for murdering and robbing two women in Miyazaki Prefecture in 1996 and 1997 and abandoning their bodies
- JUNE 14, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Nagoya High Court sentenced two men to death for...
The Nagoya High Court sentenced two men to death for double murder and robbery in 1994 and 1995
- JUNE 8, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
A 37-year-old man stabbed eight children to death with...
A 37-year-old man stabbed eight children to death with a kitchen knife and injured 15 other people, including two teachers, at an elementary school in Ikeda in the Osaka Prefecture
- JUNE 4, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Six Diet members from various political parties opposing...
Six Diet members from various political parties opposing capital punishment met with Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama to request that she make efforts to have the death penalty abolished and allow them to tour execution sites, Justice Ministry officials s
- JUNE 1, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling condemning...
The Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling condemning Shinichi Shimoyama to death for his 1993 crime orgy in which he killed and robbed three people across Japan
- MAY 17, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court sentenced Kaoru Okashita, 54,...
The Tokyo High Court sentenced Kaoru Okashita, 54, a former real estate broker, to death for murdering Ume Endo, 82, an apartment owner, in Tokyo on October 1, 1989, after swindling her out of land by forging a sales contract
- MAY 8, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
A 37-year-old gay Iranian man who has overstayed his...
A 37-year-old gay Iranian man who has overstayed his visa, is fighting to stay in Japan out of fear of a death sentence if sent back to his home country
- APRIL 25, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Japan voted against the resolution on the death penalty...
Japan voted against the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 25, 2001 (2001/68)
- APRIL 18, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Masaharu Harada, 53, of Aichi Prefecture, the brother...
Masaharu Harada, 53, of Aichi Prefecture, the brother of a victim of convicted killer Toshihiko Hasegawa, 50, met with Justice Minister Masahiko Komura and asked that Hasegawa be taken off death row
- APRIL 17, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Speaking at the UN Commission on Human Rights on item...
Speaking at the UN Commission on Human Rights on item 17, the promotion and protection of human rights, Masaru Watanabe said since the European Union was going to submit a draft resolution on the question of the death penalty, Japan wanted to state its po
- APRIL 5, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
A survivor of the March 1995 gas attack by the Aum...
A survivor of the March 1995 gas attack by the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult on the Tokyo subway system stated, testifying as a witness, that the cult's founder, Shoko Asahara, should face the death penalty for his crime
- MARCH 22, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Osaka District Court sentenced to death Hisashi...
The Osaka District Court sentenced to death Hisashi Eto, a 58-year-old former driver for murdering a man and his wife in 1997 and robbing cash from their home in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture
- MARCH 21, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo District Court sentenced Hiroki Fukawa, a...
The Tokyo District Court sentenced Hiroki Fukawa, a 35-year-old man to death for murdering and attempting to rob Shin Yamada, 91, and her daughter Hiro, 65, in their home in Edogawa Ward on April 19, 1999 to pay off his hostess girlfriend's club
- MARCH 21, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Urawa District Court sentenced to death Gen Sekine...
The Urawa District Court sentenced to death Gen Sekine a 59-year-old dog breeder for murdering four people in 1993 and Hiroko Kazama, 44, his former wife for participating in the murder of three of them
- MARCH 15, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Osaka High Court upheld a death sentence handed...
The Osaka High Court upheld a death sentence handed out by a lower court to Yoshinori Ueda, 46
- FEBRUARY 19, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
A delegation from the Council of Europe arrived in...
A delegation from the Council of Europe arrived in Japan to study capital punishment in the country
- FEBRUARY 12, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The father of murdered British bar hostess Lucie Blackman,...
The father of murdered British bar hostess Lucie Blackman, whose dismembered remains were found on January 9 at the seaside town of Miura by Japanese police, was quoted as saying her killer should face the death penalty
- FEBRUARY 1, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo District Court sentenced Yoshio Iwamoto,...
The Tokyo District Court sentenced Yoshio Iwamoto, a 56-year-old man to death for committing two murder-robberies in 1996 and 1999 in Tokyo
- JANUARY 30, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Presiding Judge Toshifumi Motohara of the Supreme Court...
Presiding Judge Toshifumi Motohara of the Supreme Court rejected Kozo Segawa's appeal against lower court capital sentence
- JANUARY 30, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
Members of the government's panel on judicial reform...
Members of the government's panel on judicial reform agreed that a joint judge-jury system should be introduced in criminal trials
- JANUARY 1, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
In February 2001 the EU called on Japan to abolish...
In February 2001 the EU called on Japan to abolish the capital punishment
- JANUARY 1, 2001JapanDEATH 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 10, 2000JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo High Court upheld a death sentence imposed...
The Tokyo High Court upheld a death sentence imposed on a man who murdered two men and one woman in Tochigi Prefecture from 1990 to 1993 in the mistaken belief that the men were having affairs with his wife