Executions in Japan lack transparency and offer no opportunity for independent oversight. Only prison of cials, the public prosecutor, and the prosecution's assistant can attend executions. Families only learn of their loved one's execution after it is carried out, when the facility invites them to collect their relatives’ body and personal belongings. Some analysts have also argued the system of police interrogation in Japan is endemic to coerced confessions. There have been ve capital cases in which defendants were exonerated on retrial due to false confessions made in such inherently coercive environments. Recent data has highlighted potential violations of defendants' due process and fair trial rights. According to a 2018 Amnesty International Report, several executions have been carried out while appeals were still pending. Most foreign nationals sentenced to death in Japan are from China. Between 2016 and 2021 there were seven foreign nationals on death row in Japan, all but one of whom were Chinese nationals, all convicted of murder, and mostly carried out in connection with a robbery. Mental illness also appears to be a considerable issue for prisoners sentenced to death. Appeal records indicate that a number of death row prisoners suffer from mental illness. The Japan Innocence & Death Penalty Information Center has identi ed 18 death row prisoners with psychological disorders. However, groups like Amnesty International (2020 report) have documented Japan's repeated failures to provide adequate medical evaluations and care for people on death row and since 2012, ve individuals with reported psychological disorders have been executed. Foreign Nationals One foreign national was executed in 2019, Chinese national Wei Wei, detailed below. Chen Daiwei Chen arrived in Japan from China in 1988 on a student visa. He remained in Japan after his visa expired. In 1992, four years after Chen's arrival, he was charged with triple murder and robbery. Together with another Chinese man, Chen was convicted for stabbing three store employees to death while attempting to steal 2.3 million yen at a pachinko parlour in Tokyo. fi fi fi fi Chen's lawyers maintain that his confession resulted from torture during his interrogation.