Posts Tagged ‘death penalty’

Keiko Chiba opposes death penalty, favors dual surnames

One of them, Keiko Chiba, 61, is the new justice minister, who opposes the death penalty and wants to encourage national debate on ending capital punishment.

She is a supporter of London-based human rights group Amnesty International, which released a damning report last week that said inhumane prison conditions in Japan were driving some death row inmates insane.

Chiba also wants to push an issue dear to the hearts of many Japanese women — allowing married couples to have different surnames, a break with the current practice of forcing wives to assume their husbands’ family names.

Chiba has said that she will carry out her role with prudence and discretion, which means she’ll probably be slow when it comes to signing off on executions.

Back in 2008, Yukio Hatoyama’s pro-death penalty brother was given the unpleasant nickname “grim reaper” because of his willingness to sign so many execution orders while serving as Justice minister in the Abe cabinet. I guess the Hatoyama family is a bit divided over the death penalty.

[via JapanSoc]

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Justice Minister Hatoyama = Grim Reaper?

Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama has approved the execution of 13 death row inmates since he assumed his post last August, a very high number that has led the Asahi Shinbun to use the term “Grim Reaper” [shinigami] when referring to him in a recent article. Hatoyama was not amused:

“It’s an insult to those who were executed. They were not taken away by the Reaper at all,” said Hatoyama during a press conference after a Cabinet meeting on Friday.

Hatoyama lambasted the Asahi Shimbun for a column carried in its evening edition on Wednesday, one day after serial girl killer Tsutomu Miyazaki and two other death row inmates were executed.

[...]

“The media observes (the number of executions I ordered) as something like a baseball player’s batting average, but I’m fulfilling my responsibility as justice minister in a somber manner in order to bring about justice,” said Hatoyama.

“Ordering executions that claim human lives is hard to stomach for me, but I ordered them for the sake of social justice. Miyazaki, the death row inmate who caused horrendous incidents, also has human rights and dignity. It was a ridiculous sentence,” said Hatoyama, referring to the article.

Justice Minister Hatoyama and Japanese Civilization

On Friday, the U.N.　Human Rights Council expressed concern about the recent increase in the number of executions carried out by Japan (in the seven months that he’s been in office, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama has already signed the death warrants of ten condemned prisoners). During the same council session, a group of mainly European countries urged Japan to abolish the death penalty.

In light of certain comments that he has made regarding the death penalty and “Japanese civilization”, I’d say the chances of Justice Minister Hatoyama heeding the Council’s urgings are even less than zero. In October 26, 2007 issue of the Shukan Asahi magazine he had this to say:

“As the Japanese place so much importance on the value of life, it is thought that one should pay with one’s own life for taking the life of another. You see, the European nations are civilizations based on force and conflict. So, conversely, things are moving against the death penalty. This is an important point to understand. The so-called civilizations of force and conflict are the opposite of us. From incipient stages, their conception of the value of life is weaker than that of the Japanese. Therefore, they are moving toward abolition of the death penalty.”

On October 24, he had lectured the Lower House’s Judicial Affairs Committee in a similar vein, stressing the differences between Japanese civilization, which strives for harmony, beauty and compassion, versus those that thrive on creating enemies. And in the May 5 issue of the Shukan Asahi he is quoted as saying:

“The other day I made an address in front of the E.U. Ambassador. I explained that historically speaking, Japanese civilization personifies symbiosis with nature, and therefore places extreme importance on the sanctity of life. For that very reason, we feel extreme anger toward those who rob another of life. We have a culture of repaying a death with a death. I feel proud to have been born into such a culture. I feel that, on the contrary, giving someone life in prison rather than the death penalty no matter how many people they kill I is a dry and coldly logical way of thinking.”

According to the May 9 issue of the Shukan Post, a writer who works in the Minister of Justice’s office as a secretary heard Hatoyama say this:

“…Japan, being a country that has such traditions as seppuku, places more value on life than any other country in the world. That is all the more reason that we are moving toward more severe punishment, including the death penalty. That is a course that I do not intend to veer away from.”

To me, the strangest thing about Mr. Hatoyama’s comments is his penchant for the word “civilization”. I haven’t heard anyone use that word since I was in high school. Our history teacher tried to impress on us something about the Tigris, the Euphrates, and Mesopotamia being the cradle of civilization. Actually, I don’t remember much about the lesson, but I do recall the lyrics from a B-52s’ song called “Mesopotamia” which goes in part like this:

I ain’t no student of ancient culture

Before I talk I should read a book

But there is one thing I do know:

There’s a lot of ruins in Mesopotamia

I think that Mr. Hatoyama should take the B-52s’ advice and read a few books, or better yet, stop reading the ones that have put such strange ideas in his head.

Japanese Radio Station To Air Recording Of 1955 Execution

In the wake of the 4 executions held in Japan last week which have come under significant condemnation from various sources including Amnesty international, according the AFP
, a Japanese radio station is preparing to broadcast a recording of a previous execution.

The 55 minute radio broadcast of the 1955 execution may include the sounds of the man being told he would be executed the next day, a possible conversation between the condemned and a prison official (although this is dependent on the official agreeing to it), and the actual sound of the rope stretching as the man is hanged.

The Osaka prison officials appear surprised about the existence of such an audio tape. According to their records, such a tape was never made.

Without this turning into a debate about the validity of capital punishment, and with the recent controversy about the four death row prisoners’ sentences being carried out fresh in our minds, is it not in poor taste to play the tapes? Or , as the broadcaster maintains, a year out from the introduction of lay judges (similar to the jury system), will it help bring more exposure to the way the death penalty has been carried out in Japan? A process which was so secretive that until December 2007, the names and details of those executed were not made public.