JAPAN. JUSTICE MINISTER STILL REFUSES TO SIGN EXECUTION ORDERS

Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura has expressed his unwillingness to give the go-ahead for executions before he steps down on September 26 with the outgoing Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, according to sources.
Ministry officials have held meetings with Sugiura about ordering executions for a few death-row inmates, but he remains unwilling to sign documents that would give the green light, the sources said.
The number of death row inmates in Japan whose death sentences have been finalized will stand at 93.
Sugiura stirred controversy when he took the post in October 2005 and said he would not sign documents ordering executions due to "matters of my religion and philosophy."
He retracted the remark shortly afterward, but he has yet to give permission for a single execution.
A follower of the Jodo Shinshu Otani-ha Buddhism sect, he once said he believes executions will be abolished in the long term.