Shizuka Kamei, a former policy chief of the ruling...

Shizuka Kamei, a former policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and seven other lawmakers belonging to a group opposing capital punishment asked Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama not to carry out any further death sentences.
Kamei, head of a group comprising 74 Diet members, noted that South Korean lawmakers recently submitted a bill to the South Korean parliament to abolish the death penalty, and said, "We question the existence of the death penalty amid the possibility of false charges."
"Even if the system (of the death penalty) exists, we want you to stop executions for the meantime," he said.
Moriyama said, "It is a very difficult thing, but I would like to think about it carefully."
No death-row inmate has been executed in Japan for more than a year after three inmates were executed in late November 2000.
Death sentences are often carried out shortly after Diet sessions close and the appeal by Kamei's group came a few days ahead of the close of the current Diet session.