Entries tagged with “Japan”

Sep 04, 2026

Japan Hangs Man in First Execution of 2026, Joining U.S. as Only G7 Nations to Execute

On August 21, 2026, Japan hanged Sunao Takami for the killing of five peo­ple. The exe­cu­tion is not only the first of the year for the nation but also the first car­ried out under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s gov­ern­ment. Aside from the United States, Japan is the only oth­er G7 coun­try to retain use of the death penal­ty. In 2009, Mr. Takami was con­vict­ed of set­ting fire to a pachinko par­lor in Osaka, killing five peo­ple and injur­ing 10. Despite his defense team arguing…

Jun 12, 2026

Amnesty International Global Report (2025): 78% Increase in Executions Globally Mark Highest Number Since 1981

According to Amnesty International’s annu­al death penal­ty report, 17 coun­tries car­ried out a total of at least 2,707 exe­cu­tions in 2025. Although the low num­ber of exe­cut­ing coun­tries was con­sis­tent with the annu­al total of 20 exe­cut­ing coun­tries or few­er since 2018, the num­ber of exe­cu­tions marked the high­est glob­al total since 1981. The 78% increase in known exe­cu­tions from 2024 to 2025 was pri­mar­i­ly dri­ven by Iran, which account­ed for 80% of the global total…

Apr 02, 2025

Japanese Exoneree Awarded $1.4 Million in Compensation After Spending 46 Years on Death Row

On March 24, 2025, Iwao Hakamada was award­ed just over $217 mil­lion yen ($1.4 mil­lion) in com­pen­sa­tion after spend­ing 46 years wrong­ful­ly incar­cer­at­ed on Japan’s death row. According to Mr. Hakamada’s legal rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Hideyo Ogawa, this award marks the​“high­est” com­pen­sa­tion ever pro­vid­ed for a wrong­ful con­vic­tion. Mr. Hakamada, who was exon­er­at­ed last year, is only the fifth death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er to receive a retri­al in post-World War II Japan, all of…

Oct 01, 2024

Citing Misconduct, Japanese Court Formally Exonerates Iwao Hakamada of 1966 Murder After 46 Years on Death Row

On September 26, 2024, a Japanese court for­mal­ly acquit­ted 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada (pic­tured), who was wrong­ful­ly sen­tenced to death in 1968 for the mur­der of his for­mer boss and fam­i­ly in Shizuoka, Japan. After 46 years on death row, and anoth­er decade of lit­i­ga­tion, Judge Kunii Tsuneishi of the Shizuoka District Court ruled that blood-stained cloth­ing used to con­vict Mr. Hakamada was fab­ri­cat­ed long after the mur­ders.​“The court can­not accept the fact that the blood…

Issues

May 01, 2024

Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Uganda, United States, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe

Missouri’s April 9th exe­cu­tion of Brian Dorsey, despite wide­spread sup­port for his clemen­cy, once again gar­nered con­dem­na­tion from the European Union, which described it as a​“inhu­man and degrad­ing prac­tice.” The EU’s state­ment high­light­ed the lack of the death penal­ty as a deter­rent and the irre­versibil­i­ty of the pun­ish­ment, not­ing that 197 death-sen­­tenced pris­on­ers have been exon­er­at­ed.​“The EU con­tin­ues to call for the uni­ver­sal abo­li­tion of the death…

Issues

Methods of Execution

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Feb 07, 2024

Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Ghana, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United States, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe

The January 25, 2024 exe­cu­tion of Kenneth Smith in the state of Alabama with nitro­gen gas received wide­spread inter­na­tion­al con­dem­na­tion. The European Union reit­er­at­ed its com­mit­ment to abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty and called the exe­cu­tion method a​“par­tic­u­lar­ly cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment.” The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, stat­ed:​“I deeply regret the exe­cu­tion of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama despite seri­ous con­cerns that this…

Issues

Jan 24, 2024

Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and Yemen

The University of Oxford Death Penalty Research Unit, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with sev­er­al human rights non­prof­its, recent­ly launched a data­base of for­eign nation­als sen­tenced to death or exe­cut­ed from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2021 in Asia and the Middle East. They found that Saudi Arabia leads the Middle East in sen­tenc­ing for­eign nation­als to death (385 peo­ple) and drug-traf­­fick­­ing (283), close­ly fol­lowed by mur­der (257), are the top crimes for which foreign…

Issues

Jul 05, 2023

Worldwide Wednesday’s International Roundup: China, Egypt, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and UAE

A total of 68 exe­cu­tions have occurred in Saudi Arabia this year, with more than 20 exe­cu­tions relat­ing to ter­ror­ism charges occur­ring since ear­ly May, accord­ing to Agence France-Presse. On July 3, five men, includ­ing one Egyptian nation­al, were exe­cut­ed for a dead­ly attack on a house of wor­ship in the Al-Ahsa gov­er­norate, result­ing in five dead and sev­er­al injured. On June 25, two Yemeni nation­als were exe­cut­ed on ter­ror­ism charges, and on June 12, three Saudi men…

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Time on Death Row

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Mar 20, 2023

INTERNATIONAL: Longest Serving Death Row Prisoner in the World Has Case Reversed

On March 13, 2023 in Japan, Tokyo’s High Court grant­ed a retri­al for Iwao Hakamada, a for­mer box­er known as the​“longest serv­ing death row” pris­on­er in the world. He was con­vict­ed of mur­der in 1968. Hideaki Nakagawa, Director of Amnesty International Japan, described the rul­ing as a​“long-over­­due chance to deliver some…

Issues

Nov 15, 2021

Death-Row Prisoners in Japan Sue Over Same-Day Notice of Executions

Two Japanese death-row pris­on­ers have filed a law­suit alleg­ing that the country’s long-crit­i­­cized prac­tice of noti­fy­ing pris­on­ers of their exe­cu­tion the same day they are to be put to death is​“inhu­mane” and violates the…