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| Japan, South Korea Maintain Death Penalty |
| U.S. only other democratic nation with capital punishment |
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Robert Neff (neff)  |
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Published 2007-01-03 18:50 (KST) |
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Many people in the world take the opportunity of the end of the year to pay off their debts and make amends to those they have hurt in an effort to start with a clean slate for the New Year. For several people in Japan, however, paying off their debts to society at the end of the year did not earn them the right to start afresh.
In Japan four men were executed for the crimes they committed against Japanese society. Ironically they were executed on Christmas, a day that many Christians honor as a day of hope and salvation, and yet for four men, Yoshimitsu Akiyama, 77, Yoshio Fujinami, 75, Michio Fukuoka, 64, and Hiroaki Hidaka, 44, it was the day of reckoning. All four men had been found guilty of theft and murder; in some cases three or four murders.
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| In Japan, the condemned, who are no longer classified as prisoners once their death sentences have been handed down, are given little advance notice that they will be executed. The prisoners are only informed a couple of hours before their date with the executioner, usually in the morning. They are given their choice of their last meal and provided with the opportunity to write a final message before they are blindfolded and subsequently hung. Their families are notified after their execution.
Kindness has been cited for the reason of the short notification of the prisoners' impending execuions. Japan Times' reporter Setsuko Kamiya quoted a Japanese criminal justice department official's explanation on why the prisoners are not informed in advance the date of their execution.
"If they know, they will think things like 'it's my turn next' and suffer, and so will their families," the official said.
Members of Japan's Social Democratic Party were angered and surprised that Justice Minister Jinen Nagase ordered the executions, making 2006 the 14th year in a row that at least one Japanese execution has been carried. The date for the executions, Christmas, has also drawn criticism.
"It's Christmas, a special day even for those who are not Christians. I can't understand why they chose to carry out the executions," said Nobuto Hosaka, an SDP legislator. Some reasoned that the Justice Ministry had chosen the day because the Diet was not in session.
But there may be reason behind the decision to choose Christmas. According to the regulation of penal code section 71, clause 2, "the execution cannot take place on a national holiday, Saturday, Sunday, or between Dec. 31-Jan. 2."
Japan is not the only established democracy that conduct executions -- the United States is foremost with 54 executions in 2006 alone. The other democracy that still has the death penalty is South Korea. However, South Korea has not executed a prisoner since Dec. 30, 1997, when 23 were sent to the gallows, two months before Kim Dae-jung, a former death row inmate himself, took office.
Similar to the Japanese system, Korean prisoners are notified 24-hours in advance. John Larkin, in his article, "Death, be not proud," described one death row inmate's eight-year wait "agonizing over" when he would receive his 24-hour notification of his impending execution. Probably like in the Japanese case, the ambiguity of the execution date is supposed to keep the prisoners from dwelling upon their approaching execution. However, many people disagree and feel that if anything, it is cruel and contributes to the deterioration of the inmate's mental health.
Korea has just over 100 crimes that are punishable by death. Most of these crimes are for murder, theft of national treasures, and espionage, including violations of the National Security Law.
In recent years this ultimate sentence has been handed down primarily upon those who have murdered several people, such as the serial killer Yoo Young-cheol. While his trial was taking place there was a movement in the National Assembly to abolish capital punishment. Yoo was sentenced to death, and his sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court. A few days after his sentencing the Korean Justice Ministry sent an official message to the National Assembly chiding them and warning, "If brutal murderers are not condemned to capital punishment, then it will go against the public's feeling of justice and victims' grudges, and their feeling of private revenge will increase."
Amnesty International dismisses the idea that "some crimes are so heinous that society must show its revulsion by executing the perpetrator" and insists that "[t]he international community has recognized that no crime can be deserving of the death penalty." It has called upon South Korea to "provide the region [Asia] with much needed human rights leadership" and abolish capital punishment.
Amnesty International also claims that there is no proof that capital punishment prevents serious crime but merely "give[s] society the illusion of control over the threat posed to public safety by serious crimes. In the immediate period around an execution there is a feeling that a blow has somehow been dealt against criminality."
While opposition to capital punishment is growing in Japan, so too are the numbers on death row. In 2006 Japan sentenced 46 people to death, bringing the present death-row population to 96. South Korea (up to June) had only sentenced one prisoner to death in 2006, bringing its total to 63 prisoners on death row.
It appears that "the illusion of control" is still a feeling that many in South Korea, Japan and the United States can appreciate and find comforting.
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References
(1) Wikipedia
(2) Amnesty International to Chun Jung-bae, South Korean Minister of Justice, June 20, 2006
(3) John Larkin, "Death Be Not Proud" Asia Week FEBRUARY 25, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 7
(4) James Card, "Free Once Again" (The Story of Yoo Yoeng-chul) Crime Library.
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©2007 OhmyNews
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