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. 5 people were executed in 1999.
A de facto moratorium on executions lasted more than three years from November 1989 to March 1993. A survey conducted by the Prime Minister's Office in November 1999 showed that 79.3 percent of respondents favored the death sentence.
The Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that the justice minister must sign an execution order within six months after the death sentence is passed by the court.
If the death-row inmate appeals the sentence, applies for retrial or pardon, the six-month limit does not apply until the procedure is completed.However, legal experts have said that justice ministers generally try to avoid issuing execution orders until the last minute before the deadline, even if there is no application for appeal or pardon.For death-row inmates, the period just before the replacement of the justice minister is the most critical time as it is more likely that their execution orders could be issued.