TOKYO: Japan yesterday hanged two death-row inmates, in the first executions since a trio of convicted killers died in the gallows two months ago and drawing immediate protest from human rights groups.
Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said that 64-year-old Katsuji Hamasaki and 56-year-old Yoshihide Miyagi, two members of Japan’s notorious Yakuza organised crime syndicates, were executed for the shooting of two rival gangsters in Chiba, southeast of Tokyo, in 2005.
The executions bring to five the number of death-row inmates hanged since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative government swept to power in landslide December elections. Japan now has 134 inmates on its death row.
Amnesty International Japan, the Japanese branch of the global rights group, protested yesterday.
“We strongly condemn the five executions conducted since the launch of the new government, which goes against calls by the international community and indicates the government’s intention to pave the way for mass executions,” it said in a statement.
Tokyo did not execute any condemned inmates in 2011, the first full year in nearly two decades without an execution amid muted debate on the rights and wrongs of a policy that enjoys wide public support.
But in March last year, Tokyo resumed its use of capital punishment with an unapologetic government minister signing death warrants for three multiple murderers.
AFP
