HANDS OFF CAIN HONORARY PRESIDENT MEETS JAPANESE AUHTORITIES

Ms Bonino, currently on a three-day visit to Japan, will meet the General Secretary of the Justice Ministry Tadaki Keiichi and Foreign Ministry officials today to discuss the application of the death penalty in that country.
She will also meet the Director of the Tokyo prison to request a visit to death row, though it is highly unlikely that her request will be accepted. Japan has no laws forbidding access to death rows, but not even Japanese parliamentarians have ever been granted entry despite numerous calls in parliament.
Yesterday the European Member of Parliament met a number of Japanese MPs from both abolitionist and retentionist fronts for a lively exchange of ideas.
She called on Japan to disassociate itself from this ‘barbaric company’ and to move towards abolition gradually through supporting an international moratorium on executions.