In the shadow of revenge?
More than a hundred people are currently sentenced to death. Last December, Japan hanged three men, marking its first executions in two years. Despite international criticism, the country does not seem to be moving towards abolition and maintains the death penalty for offences such as aggravated murder or organized crime.
Michael H. Fox is the director of the Japan Innocence & Death Penalty Information Center (JIADEP). He is a passionate activist working towards the abolition of the death penalty in Japan. Prison Insider asked him three questions.
Prison Insider. What are the detention conditions of people sentenced to death?
Michael H. Fox. Detention conditions for people sentenced to death are atrocious. All prisoners are in solitary confinement and allowed out only three times a week for thirty minutes, or for showering. Exercise time is inside a cage. TV and radio are banned except during certain national holidays. Visits are limited to twenty minutes, and like mail, are only permitted for family members and guardians. There are no phone privileges. Additionally, prisoners receive no advance notice and are likely to be informed of the execution only on the appointed morning.
A number of interesting lawsuits have been filed. One executed prisoner’s attorney filed a suit seeking redress because these procedures impeded his ability to defend the client. One was filed charging that hanging is painful and cruel. The courts did not acquiesce, but the suit raised public attention on the issue.
More recently, a prisoner facing the death penalty sued the government for the ban of pencils in detention. He was selling drawings to raise compensation for the victim’s family (October 2021). Two people sentenced to death filed a lawsuit against the government demanding a longer notice ahead of their executions (November 2021).
Little battles like these can bring big victories for those incarcerated.
PI. How does Japan use the death penalty?
MF. Between two and four executions usually occur each year, except for two huge surges. Death sentences are handed down predominantly in cases of double or multiple murders but rarely for single murders. The death penalty is also used to fuel penal populism. For example, in 1999, a troubled youth murdered a housewife and her baby. At the time, the offender was a minor and the prosecution demanded death for double murder. This case had a huge media presence: a popular TV attorney asked viewers to file complaints against the legal team for prolonging the case. As a result, thousands of letters were delivered to bar associations. The youth was finally sentenced to death and the TV attorney became, and remains, a famous political figure.
Capital punishment is also a very effective tool for prying confessions from suspects. Anyone tangentially attached to a suspected murder will be threatened with the noose for failing to admit to crimes real or imagined. Many exonerees have mentioned having gallows nightmares while in custody.
In 2009, Japan adopted a mixed jury system composed of three judges and six laypeople to determine sentences. As a result, prosecutors have been approaching capital punishment with greater caution. They received a shock in 2010, when after having demanded death, the suspect was found not guilty for the third or fourth time in postwar history. High courts have also overturned some death sentences, perhaps indicating that decisions of life and death should not be in the hands of the public.
PI. What comparison can be made between the American and the Japanese justice systems?
MF. Countries that retain the death penalty do so because it fulfills societal needs. Japan has a sociological need for scapegoats. This is the vestige of a highly stratified society, which dates back to the caste system of the 17th century. Additionally, the Japanese are some of the most non-religious people in the world, but they are superstitious and believe in karma. Back in the 1920s, the Great Kanto earthquake shook the nation and was followed by the massacre of 6,000 Korean residents. A rumor had spread that Koreans had poisoned the water supply and committed all sorts of crimes against the population. This ‘fear of the other’ phenomenon propels capital punishment in many countries.
In the US, the death penalty mostly occurs in the southern states, with a longer history of slavery. Capital punishment is perceived as a deterrent against Blacks: ‘the other.’ This concept of ‘other’ is subjective to every country. For example, in Iran, the ‘other’ are political deviants whereas Saudi Arabia executes mostly foreigners. In Pakistan, Christians are deemed threatening. In Japan, those executed are predominantly Japanese. In many countries, but certainly in Japan, executions are a Schadenfreude for the general public (a German expression referring to a pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others, editor’s note), a vent of stress to relieve the weight of a heavy hierarchical society with strict social constructs. Executions do not make society safer or saner, but fulfill deeply rooted societal needs. It is about politics, fear and power.
Source: prison-insider.com, Camille Laassiri, March 9, 2022
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde