Japan
Foreign Nationals and the Death Penalty
Death Penalty Overview
Japan is one of just two countries in the G7
nations (the other being the United States) to
retain and regularly implement capital
punishment. Though Japan recorded no
executions in 2020, the death penalty had
been regularly implemented for the previous
nine consecutive years. In 2018, Japan
recorded its highest number of executions in
over a decade.
The Japanese Penal Code outlines 19 crimes
for which capital punishment may be
imposed, including murder, robbery or arson
resulting in death, treason and insurrection.
Seven capital offences do not involve loss of
life although in practice, execution is not
imposed for crimes that do not result in
death. Hanging is the exclusive method of
execution in Japan.
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According to Japan's Ministry of Justice,
there were 110 people on death row in
December 2020. Death row prisoners are
con ned in isolation and are often
incarcerated for years before execution.
Under a 2007 Japanese Prison Law (Article
36), death row inmates are to be held in
solitary con nement, separated from other
prisoners. Contact with persons outside of
prison is severely restricted, including with
lawyers. It is considered extremely shameful
to be sentenced to death in Japan and
prisoners are often shunned by their family,
not receiving any visitors and even having to
change their family name to help them avoid
association.
Details of when an execution will be carried
out is withheld from defence lawyers,
families, and death row prisoners themselves,
with prisoners only being noti ed 1-2 hours'
before they are executed. In November 2021,
death row prisoners in Japan sued the
government for the ‘inhumane’ process of
same-day noti cation.