The death penalty is alive and well in the land of the rising sun -- and death row is particularly wretched.
TOKYO – On Feb. 21, Japan hanged three death-row inmates. These executions, the first in 18 months, took place only a few months after Shinzo Abe's new government took office.
There is no question as to whether Abe will use his mandate to abolish the death penalty. During his previous stint as Prime Minister in 2006-2007, ten people were hanged in less than a year.
The last executions have prompted no public debate. According to polls, the majority of Japanese people support the death penalty, and there are very few vocal abolitionists. Japan is one of the only industrialized country to retain capital punishment, along with the U.S. and South Korea.
Although the deterrent effect of the death penalty is debated by criminologists, the Japanese government argues that having the lowest crime rate in the OECD justifies having the death penalty, as well as extremely tough prison conditions. Public order comes at a high price in Japan – the price of prisoner rights and the presumption of innocence.
Executions, which are carried out by hanging, are shrouded in secrecy. Family members are only informed about the executions after the fact. Death row inmates are held in isolation, without the possibility of communicating with other detainees. They can await their executions for months, sometimes years. Every day, at dawn, they count the steps of the guards in the corridors – if there are more than normal, it means that there will be an execution.
Masao Akahori lived through this anguish for 31 years, before being retried and found innocent. One day, the guards opened his cell door and were about to say the dreaded words – "your time has come" – when they realized they were in the wrong cell.
There are currently 134 prisoners in Japan waiting to be executed, the largest number ever in the history of the country. Some Justice Ministers establish a de facto moratorium by not signing any execution orders. This was the case from July 2010 to March 2012, but most of them sign the orders.
On death row, as in the rest of Japanese prisons, the living conditions are particularly harsh. Since the end of the 1960s, the prisons are ruled with an iron fist. “It is forbidden to speak; you must look straight ahead,” read the signs. The workshops and mess halls are silent. Prisoners, wearing green uniforms, sandals and caps, are only allowed to talk to each other during their 15-minute breaks or after dinner. They walk in a straight line, arms along their body, eyes fixed on the neck of the prisoner in front of them. Cavity searches take place twice a day.
Source: Le Monde, World Crunch, March 20, 2013