When defending Japan’s use of the death penalty, the government always cites overwhelming public support

When defending Japan’s use of the death penalty, the government always cites overwhelming public support for the policy. In a December 2009 survey by the Cabinet Office, 85.6 per cent said “the death penalty is unavoidable under certain circumstances,” while 5.7 per cent said “the death penalty should be abolished in all circumstances” and 8.6 per cent said they “do not know.” But a major new study by an academic in Britain shows “serious flaws” in Tokyo’s assertion that the death penalty is universally popular and should therefore be maintained. Mai Sato, from Oxford University’s Centre for Criminology, shows that views are much less entrenched than previously thought, particularly after people have been exposed to more information on the subject. In November 2013, she published her findings in the book “The Death Penalty in Japan: Will the Public Tolerate Abolition?” One of Sato’s main contentions is that questions used in government public opinion surveys are phrased in a way that results in an exaggerated level of support for the death penalty. Sato decided to conduct her own survey of around 20,000 people in Japan and gave respondents five options regarding the death penalty: should definitely be kept (44 percent), should probably be kept (36 percent), cannot say (16 percent), should probably be abolished (3 percent) and should definitely be abolished (1 percent). She argues the results show that rather than being overwhelmingly in favour, just over half of the Japanese public is either “undecided” or “lukewarm” toward the death penalty. Sato then decided to take 1,000 people from the survey and split them into two groups that each had an equal proportion of those in the pro, anti and undecided camps. The former would be provided with several facts about the death penalty – such as the execution process and the possibility of miscarriages of justice – while the other group would receive no additional information. The results said 36 percent supported retaining the death penalty in the first group versus 46 percent in the latter group. A final study saw a group of people deliberating the issue over a day. Findings showed views often fluctuated on the matter, while participants also become more tolerant of opposing views, said Sato. Rather than measure support for the death penalty, Sato thinks the government should measure the level of tolerance toward abolition. She believes her research shows a majority of the Japanese public is likely to “accept or tolerate” abolition.