The Diet Members’ League for Abolition of the Death Penalty, a par­lia­men­tary group of the gov­ern­ing Liberal Democratic Party, has draft­ed leg­is­la­tion to replace the death penal­ty with life in prison. In addi­tion, the bill would estab­lish pan­els in both Houses of the Diet to study cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The bill does not pro­pose an imme­di­ate aban­don­ment of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, but instead impos­es a four-year mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. During this time, the par­lia­men­tary pan­els would be charged with reach­ing a con­sen­sus on the abo­li­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in three years.

In 2001, the Council of Europe adopt­ed a res­o­lu­tion that threat­ened to review the observ­er sta­tus of Japan and the United States if the two coun­tries failed to take steps toward abol­ish­ing the death penalty.

(Japan Times, June 23, 2003) See International Death Penalty.

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