The Japanese government on Thursday ruled out abolishing the death penalty, rejecting calls by domestic legal experts for a review amid international pressure to end capital punishment, local media reported.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference that the government thinks it is not appropriate to abolish the death penalty and the death penalty is “unavoidable for a person who has committed an extremely grave and atrocious crime,” Kyodo News reported.
On Wednesday, a private-sector panel including former law enforcement leaders proposed to the cabinet and parliament the establishment of a conference body to discuss whether to maintain the death penalty.
The 16-member panel, including a former top prosecutor, a former top police official and academics, said in a report that “fundamental discussions” are needed at a commission to be established under the government or the Diet.
Citing the case of Iwao Hakamata, an 88-year-old man who spent nearly half a century on death row before being acquitted in a recent retrial over a 1966 quadruple murder, the panel’s report said, “Once a mistake occurs, it takes a very long time to correct it.”
The panel, established in February at the initiative of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, also said abolishing the death penalty system is an international trend.
The Japanese government has retained capital punishment partly based on its opinion polls. One conducted in 2019 found that more than 80 percent of respondents said the death penalty is “unavoidable.”
Xinhua
