Japanese authorities today executed two death-row convicts. The executions remain in the midst of international human rights groups calling for Japan to abolish the death penalty.
Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda had granted permission for the executions of the two death row inmates. With the execution of both men named Masakatsu Nishikawa and Koichi Sumida, it means that up to now total of 19 executions have been executed since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was inaugurated at the end of 2012.
"The Justice Minister made the right decision in accordance with the provisions of the Act," Suga said at a press conference today as quoted by AFP news agency on Thursday (13/7/2017).
Nishikawa, 61, has been sentenced to death for the murder of four bar owners in western Japan in 1991. While Sumida (34) was sentenced to death for the murder of a female colleague in 2011 and to have her body mowned.
During this time the death penalty in Japan won wide public support Sakura country. Although European governments and human rights groups have often protested the practice of execution in Japan.
Japan and the United States are currently the only major developed countries, still applying the death penalty.
According to the parties opposed to the death penalty, the death penalty system in Japan is cruel. This is because detainees are left to wait for years in solitary confinement, and are notified of their execution just hours before execution.