Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Japan. The Penal Code of Japan and several laws list 14 capital crimes. In practice, though, it is applied only for aggravated murder. Executions are carried out by long drop hanging, and take place at one of the seven execution chambers located in major cities across the country. The only crime punishable by a mandatory death sentence is instigation of foreign aggression.
Death sentences are usually passed in cases of multiple murders, although there have been some extremely grave cases where individuals who committed a single murder have been sentenced to death and executed, such as those involving torture, extreme brutality or kidnapping with a demand for ransom.[1][2]
Since 2000, 98 inmates have been executed in Japan,[3] with the most recent being the execution of Tomohiro Katō, the perpetrator of the Akihabara massacre in 2008, who was executed on 26 July 2022.[4] There are currently 107 death row inmates awaiting execution.[5] Support for capital punishment has consistently been high among the Japanese public. In a poll conducted in November 2019 of 3,000 Japanese adults by the Cabinet Office, 80.8% of respondents stated they support the continued usage of the death penalty in Japan, while 9% stated it should be abolished in all cases. When the question proposed the introduction of life sentencing without parole, 35.1% answered that the death penalty should be abolished, while 52.0% said it should continue.[6] Actual support for the retention of the death penalty in Japan is likely less than what polls suggest due to the use of leading questions.[7]
Japan is one of four developed democracies worldwide to actively apply the death penalty. [a][8]
Death penalty for a single murder is quite rare.
Following Tuesday's executions, the number of inmates sitting on death row in Japan stands at 107.
But popular zeal for the death penalty may be less solid than it looks. Government surveys use leading questions that favour retention.
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