JAPAN

Japan has no intention of abolishing the death penalty, Japanese Justice Minister Masahiko Komura told the CE delegation led by Finnish parliamentarian Gunnar Jansson. He claimed that 80% of the Japanese population support the death penalty. However Japanese Social Democratic MP Nobuto Hosaka, secretary of the Parliamentary League for Abolition, challenged the Justice Minister’s statement.“Such public opinion surveys are usually carried out after some dramatic event has occurred, and therefore are also influenced by the emotive factor. "Moreover public opinion is not well informed on the death penalty and how executions are carried out. “Death row prisoners, who may have spent 10 to 15 years awaiting death, are suddenly taken, without any prior notification, to an execution room. Four executioners simultaneously push a button, and the convicts fall, hung by the neck, through a trap-door. The only way we can get information on executions is through prison employees, who, at great personal risk, inform us a few minutes before they take place.“Japan did without the death penalty for three hundred years, so we hope, following Europe’s example, to re-introduce our ancient values.” Mr Hosaka and 70 other parliamentarians representing various political parties are pushing for a reform of the death penalty legislation in Japan, trying to obtain at least a moratorium on capital executions.It took them one and a half years to organise the visit by the CE delegation because of difficulties posed by the Japanese authorities. Japan has observer status with the Council of Europe, which sets the abolition of capital punishment as a condition to membership. “The Council of Europe has five countries who have observer status, but only two where the death penalty still exists, Japan and the United States,” Mr Jansson said.The Council of Europe does not wield any political or judicial power with observer countries but hopes to influence them with the European example, the head of the delegation explained. “We want observer states to share our values, especially the respect of human rights. The first and most important human right is the right to life and that is why we are carrying out this project in countries where the death penalty still exists” Jansson said. The CE delegation held a number of talks during its visit. “Our impressions are fairly positive. We are satisfied that we have met everyone we wanted to meet, with the exception of prisoners on death row.” Minister Komura said only Parliament can grant permission for death row prisoners to be visited. The Parliamentary League is working to obtain it in view of the forthcoming visit of European MP Emma Bonino. A Japanese delegation in favour of the abolition of the death penalty will visit Europe in June. The delegation will be accompanied by Menda, a death row prisoner who was released after 34 years in prison after a Court of Appeal ruled he had not had adequate legal assistance during the original trial in which he was sentenced to death.

Mr Jansson and Mr Hosaka were interviewed by Elisabetta Zamparutti and Anna Zammit for Hands off Cain.