Japan continues to use the death penalty. The country carried out the execution of three death row inmates on Tuesday, according to local media citing sources including the justice ministry. These executions are said to be the first in the country since December 2019 and since Prime Minister Fumio Kishida came to power in early October.
The Justice Department did not immediately confirm this information. The last execution dated back to December 2019, that of a Chinese convicted of the murders of four members of the same family in the southwest of the country in 2003.
A long wait
Japan executed three convicts in 2019 and 15 in 2018, including 13 members of the Aum sect, involved in a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo metro in 1995.
There are currently more than 100 people on death row in the country, and many years usually elapse between sentencing and execution by hanging. Public support for the death penalty remains strong despite criticism from abroad, in particular from human rights organizations.
