Policy planners of the three ruling parties-the Liberal...

Policy planners of the three ruling parties-the Liberal Democratic Party(LDP), New Komeito and Hoshuto (New Conservative Party)-decided to look into revising the Penal Code to pave the way for the introduction of life imprisonment without parole. The New Komeito party said they hoped that the new sentence would lead to the abolition of capital punishment. A task force set up by New Komeito had been studying the idea of replacing capital punishment with a life sentence without parole after it adopted a policy in July of 1999 to look into ways to abolish the death sentence. However, some LDP members insisted that the death sentence must be maintained, even though New Komeito wants it abolished.