2 death row prisoners executed in Japan
Print Edition
TWO death row prisoners were executed in Japan yesterday, officials and media said, as campaigners called for the country to abolish capital punishment.
The two executions took to 14 the number of death sentences carried out since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took power in 2012.
One of the two executed yesterday was the nation’s first to be condemned by jurors.
Sumitoshi Tsuda, 63, was hanged for killing three people in Kawasaki in May 2009, a justice ministry official said.
It was Japan’s first execution of an inmate sentenced by lay judges, the ministry said.
Japan in 2009 launched a new system in which citizens deliberate with professional judges in a bid to boost the role of the public in the judicial process.
Under the system, 26 people have been sentenced to death, according to broadcaster NHK.
“Lay judges made the judgement and I took it seriously,” Justice Minister Mitsuhide Iwaki told a news conference.
Separately, Kazuyuki Wakabayashi, 39, was executed for killing two people in 2006 in Iwate, northern Japan, the ministry official said.
He was sentenced to death by professional judges.
Japan and the United States are the only major advanced industrial nations that continue to have capital punishment.
The latest prompted angry reaction from campaigners, who again called on Japan to abolish the death penalty.
Japan’s “willingness to put people to death is chilling and must end now,” said Roseann Rife, from Amnesty International.
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