The death penalty is provided for by the Criminal Procedure Law and by the Penal Code for a number of offences (13) but, in practice is applied only for murder.

Japanese criminal law envisages the death penalty for 13 different crimes but in practice death sentences are only handed down for murder.
Japan keeps the utmost reserve on executions. Inmates can be held on death row for decades, and 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.
Prisoners are isolated in narrow solitary cells monitored by TV cameras 24 hours a day. Death is by hanging, with prisoners, handcuffed and blindfolded, placed over a trapdoor that is sprung open without warning.
The death penalty is popular in Japan.
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.
In July 2003, a Bill for the abolishment of the death penalty put forward by 122 lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties was blocked before it even reached Parliament. The purpose of the Bill was to put an end to the death penalty in three stages: firstly, a discussion panel from both chambers would have debated weather the death penalty should be retained or not; secondly, the country’s criminal code would be revised introducing a moratorium on executions, although capital punishment would remain in the constitution; thirdly, a tougher life sentence would be introduced, eliminating the possibility of parole. Also in July 2003, for the first time in 30 years, the Ministry of Justice allowed a group of parliamentarians to visit death row in Tokyo’s Detention Centre.
On October 1, 2003, the Council of Europe lamented the lack of progress in efforts to persuade Japan and the United States to abolish the death penalty and again warned that their observer status at the pan-European rights body was at risk. The assembly, which had asked Japan and the United States to put a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty altogether, said it was becoming increasingly difficult for the council "to accept observer states which carried out executions."
The Council of Europe said that the death penalty was an act of torture as well as being in-human and degrading punishment constituting a grave violation of universally accepted human rights.
As of December 29, 2004 there were 68 death-row inmates in Japan.
From November 1989 to March 1993, all executions were stayed in Japan, partly because the acting minister of justice was personally opposed to the death penalty. In the eight years preceding the de facto moratorium, 13 inmates were executed. Forty-five people have been executed since Japan resumed capital punishment in 1993.
Two people were put to death in 2001, 2002 and 2004, whereas only one had been put to death in 2003. The latest execution took place in September 2005, when a man was hanged for murder.