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Dead Men Walking: Japan's Death Penalty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

David McNeill  and
C.M. Mason
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Japan's death penalty is cruel, secretive and out of step with much of the developed world say its opponents. As a record 97 men and 5 women await the hangman's noose, one man alive and free who knows its true horrors speaks.

After breakfast on Christmas Day, 2006, three Japanese pensioners and a middle-aged former taxi-driver were given an hour to live. The men were told to clean their cells, say their prayers and write a will. Fujinami Yoshio, 75, scribbled a note to his supporters before he was taken to the gallows of the Tokyo Detention Center in a wheelchair. “I cannot walk by myself, I am ill and yet you still kill such a person,” he wrote. “I should be the last person executed.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , April 2007 , e6
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2007

References

Sources

Toshio, Sakamoto, “Shikei wa ikani shikkou sareruka – Moto keimukan ga akasu” (How an execution is conducted: recounted by a former prison guard), Publisher: Nihon Bungei sha.Google Scholar
Menda Sakae Gokuchu Nooto – watashi no miokkuta shikeishu-tachi. Publisher: Impakutoo Shuppankai. (Menda Sakae's prison diary: The friends I lost).Google Scholar