Japan: New minister won't shirk from hangings

Execution chamber
at Tokyo's Detention Center

New Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa indicated he may issue execution orders as the number of death-row inmates has grown to a postwar high of around 130, but suggested that condemned Aum Shinrikyo members may not face the gallows anytime soon.

"It's a very hard duty, but I have to take responsibility (for authorizing executions)," Ogawa said Friday in his first news conference since assuming the post. "It isn't in line with the spirit of the law for the number of death-row inmates to continue increasing without executions."

No hangings were carried out in 2011, the 1st full year in which there were no executions in a 19-year span.

Ogawa suggested that with the Jan. 1 arrest of Aum kidnap-slaying fugitive Makoto Hirata after almost 17 years on the run, cult figures on death row may have to testify in his trial and thus none would probably face the gallows in the near future.

"It's likely that testimony will be heard from the death-row inmates. We need to take this point into consideration," Ogawa said. Hirata, 46, faces trial in connection with the 1995 abduction-murder of Tokyo notary Kiyoshi Kariya.

A total of 13 Aum members, including cult founder Shoko Asahara, are on death row for a series of crimes, including the 1995 sarin strike on the Tokyo subway system and another attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in 1994.

Regardless of party lines, giving the final go-ahead to executions has always been a critical test for justice ministers.

While Ogawa has shown a positive stance toward signing off on executions, former Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura, a retired Liberal Democratic Party politician, has joined a panel formed recently by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations to pursue the abolition of capital punishment.

Sugiura, 77, was a rarity among LDP lawmakers for not signing any death warrants when he served as justice minister for nearly a year until September 2006, citing his religious beliefs.

Sugiura, who joined the panel as an adviser, recently said, "I'll work as a liaison between the panel and politicians and bureaucrats, as I have had connections with both as justice minister and as a parliamentarian.

Source: Japan Times, January 14, 2011

New justice minister vague on whether he'll issue orders to resume executions

Tokyo Death Chamber

TOKYO — New Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa has indicated that he may be planning to resume issuing orders for executions, but added that he is unlikely to sign any such orders soon.

Ogawa’s remarks, made at his first news conference on Friday night, come at a time when Japan’s total number of death row inmates has risen to 129.

Last year, there were no executions in Japan. The last execution in Japan was in July 2010 when then justice minister Keiko Chiba, a former lawyer, approved the hanging of two inmates, despite her long-time opposition to the death penalty.

In an unusual move, Chiba attended the executions and later allowed the media to visit the execution chamber at the Tokyo Detention House in a bid to increase public debate over the death penalty.

Ogawa said ordering executions is a tough thing to do, but it is part of his duty nonetheless, NHK reported. He said that just increasing the number of inmates on death row with no executions would be contrary to the spirit of the law.

However, Ogawa said that he would most likely not issue execution orders in the near future for any of the 13 members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult on death row. Following the arrest of former Aum fugitive Makoto Hirata and his accomplice Akemi Saito who turned themselves in, Ogawa said that investigators may need to hear testimony from Aum inmates in their case, NHK reported.

Apart from the United States, Japan is the only major industrialized democracy to carry out capital punishment, a practice that has earned Tokyo repeat protests from European governments and human rights groups.

Source: Japan Today, January 16, 2012