JAPAN: DEATH PENALTY ACTIVISTS SPEAK OUT

after his brother was killed in January 1982, Masaharu Harada, 57, grappled not only with the loss, but also with deep anger and hatred for the perpetrator. "I visited the murderer in prison and I felt my anger change to inexplicable sadness for him. I was filled with a sense of relief," Harada told IPS. The convicted killer, Toshihiko Hasegawa, 51, who was hanged in 2001, wrote to Harada telling of the cruelty he endured on death row. "For months he waited out his hanging in isolation. His family was barred from visiting him. Such treatment is inhuman and does not make me feel better," he said.
Dr Masami Hirayama, a mental health specialist, has long campaigned for better rights for the mentally ill, accusing the government of failing to provide psychological treatment for death row inmates. This is tantamount to denying them a fair trial. "Handing down death sentences on these people without giving them proper medical treatment is wrong," he told IPS.