The Japan Federation of Bar Associations started its...

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations started its annual human rights meeting in Miyazaki, southwestern Japan, focusing mainly on the issue of capital punishment.
At a symposium, panelists from South Korea and Taiwan reported their countries were now seeking to abolish capital punishment, while a European Commission diplomat harshly criticized the secrecy surrounding the Japanese death penalty system.
Recognizing that the human rights of death row inmates were not guaranteed in Japan and that executions were carried out in secret, the federation was to adopt a declaration at the end of the two-day meeting to urge the government to suspend executions and disclose more information about them.
It was the first time that the lawyers' group has brought up the issue of capital punishment at its human rights meeting.
Cha Hyung Geun, a lawyer from South Korea, told the symposium that executions had been suspended for six years and nine months there but violent crimes had not increased.
Meanwhile, Michael Reiterer, deputy head of delegation of the European Commission in Japan, said he expected Tokyo to stop such practices as executing inmates in a cruel manner -- hanging -- without informing their lawyers or relatives.
''We lawyers are still divided over the pros and cons of capital punishment, but at least we have a consensus that the Japanese death penalty system has many defects,'' said Kazuhiro Terai, a lawyer playing a key role in compiling the declaration draft.
"We have to be aware now that the world trend is toward abolition of the death penalty and our system is really problematic,'' he added.