At most prisons, a separate room contains three to five buttons. On command, prison officers each push one button. There are no public witnesses. Opponents argue that with so few executions, Japan should simply end capital punishment. The United Nations considers it a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Japan has signed.
Supporters also say it deters crime, a claim unproved in Japan as elsewhere.
The homicide rate in Japan declined gradually from 1950 until 1988 and then leveled off, irrespective of the number of executions, which has ranged from zero to 39 per year. The Japanese people express a strong will for it. We are a homogenous society, living together. If there is something shameful, we want to cut out that part from the rest of society.