A bipartisan group of Japanese lawmakers opposed to...

A bipartisan group of Japanese lawmakers opposed to capital punishment asked Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama to impose a moratorium on capital punishment for the duration of the Diet recess, the lawmakers said. Moriyama ordered executions while the Diet was in recess in December 2001 and again in September, according to the Diet Members' League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, led by former Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Shizuka Kamei. The league, formed in April 1994, has 121 members. When the next Diet session is convened in mid-January, the members will submit a bill to establish an ad hoc committee to debate the abolishment of capital punishment. The committee will be set up either in the Diet or the Cabinet, the group's secretariat said earlier, adding it would study cases in other countries, hear opinions from experts and try to encourage public debate on the issue.Hideo Kijima, a Lower House member of the Japanese Communist Party who met with Moriyama, said the justice minister did not discuss capital punishment when she met with the group. However, Moriyama did say she will participate in discussions on the creation of the ad hoc committee if the bill is submitted to the Diet.