From: creubank@is.crl.sony.co.jp (Curtis Eubanks)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: It's Hangin' Time!
Date: 12 Jan 93 00:43:35 GMT
    <CREUBANK.93Jan11165056@crls15.is.crl.sony.co.jp> 
    <1993Jan11.105253.20369@Csli.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: creubank@is.crl.sony.co.jp (Curtis Eubanks)
Organization: Sony Corporation, Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan.
X-Bytes: 3171

In article <1993Jan11.105253.20369@Csli.Stanford.EDU> hiraga@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Yuzuru Hiraga) writes:

  >In article <CREUBANK.93Jan11165056@crls15.is.crl.sony.co.jp> creubank@is.crl.sony.co.jp (Curtis Eubanks) writes:
  >>Just one year, 1992.  In fact, discounting last year (and, I suppose
  >>this year?)  there has been at least one execution in Japan every year
  >>for something like 30 years.
  >
  >I don't think that's correct.
  >Cite the sources please.

The information comes from a Japanese television program I saw a month
or two ago.  I'm sorry I don't remember the name of it, but it dealt
with "shikei $@;`7:(J" (death penalty) in the U.S. and Japan.

They showed a list of the number of people

    1. sentenced
    2. actually killed

each year in Japan for the last 20-30 years.  It was pointed out that
1992 was the only year in which no deaths actually took place.  They
even interviewed a guy who performed the hanging.  He seemed a little
odd.

  >>  >(sorry, I wasn't paying attention)...Apparently, there are people who
  >>  >are convicted and sentenced to the death penalty every year, but in
  >>  >order for the actual hanging to take place, it must be approved by
  >>  >some head of gov't...(I don't know the title)...and apparently, the
  >>  >past three or four people who have held this position, have NOT signed
  >>  >the approval papers...I remember hearing that they were reluctant to
  >>  >sign it, but I didn't hear the exact reasoning behind this.
  >
  >I, think this more closer to truth.
  >The title is Houmu-daijin (Minister of Justice).

Many *more* are sentenced than actually killed.  According to the
program, there are over fifty people on Japanese death row currently.

  >BTW:
  >I'm quite surprised to see this much TV interviews of convicts in the US,
  >as well as the detailed descriptions by the "public" witnesses of
  >the execution.  Another "cultural difference" I presume.
  >I don't think citizen witnesses are allowed/required for execution in Japan.
  >And they ARE reported, though the execution itself seldom makes
  >the top headlines.
  >
  >-YH

In the Japanese program, they showed video clips of a mass-murderer (I
don't remember his name) who was made to apologize in front of the
mothers of the children he killed.

I have heard from a Japanese colleague of mine that the government
does not let out information on specific times of executions, but I
don't know if this is true.

In any case, I am just reporting what I remember.  Feel free to refute
it, ignore it, use it for your favorite cause.  I have absolutely no
interest in "culture wars."  The death penalty ultimately shows
nothing about a culture anyway, as a considerable portion of any
sizable population will be for it, and a considerable portion against
it.

                      			-Curtis
--
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Curtis Eubanks                   creubank@is.crl.sony.co.jp

Sony Information Systems and Telecommunications Research Laboratories
                       Information Systems Division
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