2 June 2000

EXTRA 53/00              Death Penalty/imminent execution

JAPAN
Up to nine prisoners, names not given


Up to nine prisoners under sentence of death may be executed on or
around 9 June. Because executions in Japan are arbitrary and
carried out in secret, there is no official confirmation of the names of
those scheduled for execution.

Executions usually take place in summer and winter, and the
authorities often time these to coincide with parliamentary recesses
or parliamentary elections, and public holidays, so as to minimise
public and parliamentary criticism. Parliament is due to dissolve
today, with elections scheduled for 25 June. These executions may
be seen as a signal to the public that the government is tough on
crime.

Four of the nine submitted habeas corpus petitions in December
1999, and another lodged an appeal for a retrial. It is feared that their
executions will go ahead even though, as far as Amnesty
International is aware, these appeals have not yet been decided. Of
the five people executed in 1999, one had filed a habeas corpus
petition, and another had petitioned for a retrial.

Three of the nine have lodged appeals for clemency, one of which
was rejected a few days ago. The outcomes of the other two appeals
are not known.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The application of the death penalty in Japan is arbitrary and cruel.
Executions by hanging are carried out without the knowledge of
families or lawyers and apparently in an arbitrary manner. Usually the
Minister of Justice signs the execution order on Monday and the
executions are carried out on the Thursday or Friday of the same
week. It is feared that the Minister could sign the order for these
executions on 5 June, and they would then take place on or around 9
June.

Members of Japan's large anti-death penalty movement intend to
picket the detention centres in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka
next week where the nine prisoners are held.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty as a violation of the
right to life and the ultimate form of cruel and inhuman punishment,
and calls on the government to cease all executions, to commute all
outstanding death sentences and to take steps towards abolishing
the death penalty.

Advocates of the death penalty in Japan claim that public support for
the death penalty is overwhelming, citing Japanese government
surveys. However, these surveys contain questions loaded in favour
of the death penalty. Importantly, there was no significant opposition
in Japan to the de facto moratorium on executions of 1989-93.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send
telegrams/telexes/faxes/express/airmail letters:
- expressing concern that some nine people are under threat of
imminent execution;
- urging the Japanese government to ensure that no executions are
carried out before or during the forthcoming Parliamentary elections;
- calling for an immediate moratorium on all executions pending the
abolition of the death penalty in Japanese law;
- calling on the Japanese government to ratify the Second Optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
aimed at and leading to the abolition of the death penalty.

APPEALS TO:
Mr MORI Yoshiro
Prime Minister
2-3-1 Nagata-cho
Tokyo 100-0014, Japan
Telegrams Prime Minister Mori, Tokyo, Japan
E-mails:  You can send your appeal through the following URL
          http://www.iijnet.or.jp/sorifu/kantei/foreign/comment.html
Fax:      011 81 3 3581 3883
Salutation:    Dear Prime Minister

Mr USUI Hideo
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice
1-1-1 Kasumigaseki
Tokyo 100-8977, Japan
Telegrams:     Minister Usui, Tokyo, Japan
E-mails:  webmaster@moj.go.jp
          g00680@shugiin.go.jp
Fax:      01181 3 3592 7011/3593 3009 (answer machine
message followed by tone)/5511 7207
Salutation:    Dear Minister

COPIES TO:

Newspapers
Asahi Shimbun
5-3-2 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku,
Tokyo 104-8011, Japan
Fax:      011 81 3 3545 0285/3593 0438

Yomiuri Shimbun
1-7-1 Ohtemachi, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-0004, Japan
E-mails:  gaihou@tokyo.yomiuri.co.jp
Fax:      011 81 3 3245 1277/3581 0434

Japan Times
4-5-4 Shibaura, Minato-ku
Tokyo 108-0014, Japan
Fax:      011 81 3 3453 5456

Ambassador Mr Shunji Yanai
Embassy of Japan
2520 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 202 328 2187
Email:eojjicc@erols.com