The death penalty is provided for by the Criminal Procedure...

The death penalty is provided for by the Criminal Procedure Law and by the Penal Code for a number of offenses (13) but, in practice, it is applied only for murder. The Government is extremely secretive about executions, and refused until late last year to even publicly acknowledge them. Inmates can be held on death row for decades, and critics say they are often not informed of their execution dates until the day of the hanging. Families and attorneys are usually informed after the execution. The executions, which typically take place in the summer and at year's end, are conducted when Parliament is in recess, to avoid parliamentary discussion. Local news organizations, sparsely informed, seem little inclined to probe the issue. The death penalty is popular in Japan. Its critics say any serious re-examination of the issue is all the more unlikely after a number of spectacular recent crimes, particularly the poison gas attack on a Tokyo subway in 1995.