Japan executed 3 death row inmates for the first time since 2019
- Three men were executed in Japan on Tuesday.
- Their executions were the first of the new administration and the first since 2019.
Japan executed three men on Tuesday for the first time since 2019 — marking the first executions of the new administration, according to the Japan Times.
65-year-old Yasutaka Fujishiro, 54-year-old Tomoaki Takanezawa, and 44-year-old Mitsunori Onogawa were executed on Tuesday, according to KYODO News.
Fujishiro allegedly killed seven of his family members in 2004. While Takanezawa and Onogawa were charged for killing two employees of a Pachinko arcade parlor in 2003, the outlet reported.
The executions were carried out under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa ordered them "after giving careful considerations again and again," according to the Japan Times.
Both began their positions in October.
All Japanese executions remain secret to the prisoner until hours before and the family of the prisoner is not informed until after the execution, according to CNN.
All executions are done by hanging and are usually reserved for those who commit multiple murders, CNN reported.
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara said just after the executions that it is "not appropriate to abolish (the country's death penalty system) considering the current situation in which heinous crimes continue to occur."
Chiara Sangiorgio, death penalty advisor at Amnesty International, called on leaders to temporarily ban executions as a first step towards abolition in a statement after the execution.
"The recent appointment of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was a chance for progress on human rights in Japan," Sangiorgio said. "But today's abhorrent resumption of executions is a damning indictment of this government's lack of respect for the right to life."
As of 2021, 108 countries — over two-thirds of the globe — have abolished the death penalty, according to Al Jazeera.
There are currently 107 inmates on death row in Japan, according to the Japan Times.
"After two years without executions, this feels like a missed opportunity for Japan to take long-overdue steps to abolish the cruel practice of the death penalty," Sangiorgio added.