JAPAN: DEATH ROW INMATE'S TELL-ALL BLOG OPENS DEBATE

Tetsuo Odajima, 65, who is on death row at the Tokyo Detention Center in Japan, is writing a blog, a rare insight into the inmates on Japan's secretive death row. He was arrested in 2005 and later convicted of killing four people in three cases in 2002. Michinori Saito, a 67-year-old journalist, places Odajima's letters on the blog with Odajima's consent. The two began corresponding after Saito wrote Odajima before his sentence was finalized to ask how he felt about his life. Death row inmates may write to their family members and lawyers, but usually not to others. The exceptions are a handful of people who prison authorities believe "contribute to the prisoner's mental stability." The prison staff has the right to censor each letter.