His background actually sounds pretty similar to the Akihabara killer, as far as being a top student who from the middle of high school gradually delves off into a psycho-otaku relm.

Controversy on whether he was “mentally fit” was said to have considerably extended the final sentence, but I fail to see how all the psychiatric evaluations in the world could have made adequate excuses for continually mailing intricate letters to the victim’s families after the murders.

Japan and America are the only members of the G8 Group of countries which carry out the death penalty. It was surprising and insensitive to carry out executions while hosting the G8 2008 Summit. Japan continues to ignore “a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty,” which was passed by the U.N. General Assembly on Dec. 8 2007. Recently, at a U.N. Human Rights meeting, Japan stated ‘it was not in a position to abolished the death penalty.’
At the same meeting Japan was reviewed for the first time and in the council’s working-level meeting held in May, various countries put forward a total of 26 recommendations on how Japan should rectify its human-rights practices. One such recommendation expressed concern for the welfare of detainees in Japanese police custody. Calls were also made for Japan to fight gender-based discrimination, racism and xenophobia, and to pay more attention to vulnerable groups such as migrants.

The meetings of the G8 started in Jan. There are many meetings prior to the main summit meeting which is Jul. 7-9. The UN Human Rights group mentioned is my post is not UNHCR which is the UN agency for refugee’s.
But the recent executions come less than one month before the main summit meeting, with six of the countries opposed to capital punishment it is a slap in the face.
The 26 recommendations made by the UN Human Rights not only includes abolishing the death penalty which is a barbaric act but also other areas affecting many people in Japan.
The American Department of State in its annual report on Japan although a supporter of capital punishment condemns the way Japanese death row inmates are kept.
The executed inmates committed evil acts against innocent people, but it is also an evil act to end the life of another. There is no difference between murder by an individual, or murder by the State, or murder by actions of war.

Thanks for the clarifications, zichi. Nevertheless, there are clear moral differences between murder by an individual and “murder” by the state. The only rationale for supporting an end to capital punishment (for murder) is the possibility that innocent people may become wrongfully convicted and sentenced to die. In this particular case, however, this reservation obviously doesn’t apply.

Murder = illegal killing by most common definition. The death penalty is legal, therefore it is not murder. You can disagree with it, but it is completely legal. Besides, there’s basically no domestic movement or support for eliminating the death penalty, so it’s not likely to change anytime soon. That’s the way a democracy functions. If the decision to make it illegal is made, it should be by the Japanese people.

I checked out that UN resolution (btw, everyone ignores them when it suits their interests since they don’t have the force of law behind them) and the list of countries that voted for it has some hilarious ones (Algeria?!):

Annex VI from:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/ga10678.doc.htm

Vote on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty

The draft resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty (document A/62/439/Add.2) was adopted by a recorded vote of 104 in favour to 54 against, with 29 abstentions, as follows:

In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia (Federated States of), Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela.

Against: Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Chad, China, Comoros, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Dominica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Grenada, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United States, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

Abstain: Belarus, Bhutan, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Morocco, Niger, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Togo, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Viet Nam, Zambia.

Absent: Guinea-Bissau, Peru, Senegal, Seychelles, Tunisia.

I did not begin this forum discussion I merely posted my opinions and thoughts. Capital punishment will always be a hot subject.
Due to my believe system its something I can not support or agree to under any circumstances. It is wrong to take the life of another whether its by legal or illegal means. There are many who say the war in Iraq is also legal but war is something else which I can’t support. The death penalty is no longer used by the 28 member countries of the EU plus Russia.
There are members of the Diet, and indeed the government who are also opposed to the death penalty.

But that much goes both ways. Remember shortly after Ban ki Moon became SG (when he really didn’t know what he was doing), when asked about the death penalty he replied that countries should be free to decide on it. Then, after being prompted by his staff on the “official” UN position, he suddenly changed his mind and apologized.

His older position was about right though. There are cogent arguments for and against it. There are certainly countries with majorites favoring capital punishment that got pressured into abolishing it like Turkey, for badly wanting (still unsuccessfully) to join the European “club”. Telling other countries what to do with it (as long as they’re not political prisoners or anything) is worse than whether a country wants to do it or not in my mind. For that much it’s all for the better that Japan won’t be influenced from outside. After all, the idea that life is an inflexibly “universal” human right for all is rather ethnocentric as not only many moral beliefs are not necessarily in step with it but many religious beliefs as well. But it does logically go with another common European belief that religion should play no part in any circumstances in a country’s mores or folkways.

My personal favorite capital punishment system (in regard to murder at least) is actually Iran’s: they let the family of the victim decide the fate of murderer.

The Japan Parliamentary League Against the Death Penalty, and the New Komeito party, the LDP’s coalition partner are opposed to capital punishment. More than 100 Diet members want to abolish it.
During the tenure of Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura, a Buddhist, he refused to sign any execution orders. Both the SDP and the JCP are opposed to capital punishment. If there was a conscience/free vote in the Diet its likely capital punishment would be abolished. Its often stated that the majority of the Japanese support capital punishment and the figure of 80% is usually kicked about. but 80% of the people don’t support the government. The number of voters taking part in an election is becoming dangerously low. In the 2005 election the voting rate dropped to about 67% so it can’t be said that the majority support the government. The voting rate is now down to about 58%. On a historical note, during the Heian Period 794-1185 no executions were carried out.
12 of the States in America and the District of Columbia have abolished capital punishment. Recently New Jersey abolished it. Nearly 25% of the States are opposed to capital punishment. Most of the executions are actually out by former slave States?

I didn’t say 100 diet members were a majority but there is enough dissent for a free vote on capital punishment.
The Prime Minister’s Office in presented a poll in 1999. In the poll nearly 80 % said they supported the country’s use of the Death Penalty. Only 8 % said they wanted to see the Death Penalty abolished. The poll embraced 5000 men and women who were 20 years old or older. From a poll of only 5000 people it can not be claimed that it actually represents 80% of the voting population?

I strongly suspect that a sample size of 5,000 persons (in a properly conducted poll) is sufficient to produce a statistically valid result where the margin of error cannot be that great that these numbers should be seriously questioned. Any real statisticians out there that can clarify this point?

The idea of holding a free vote with a mere 100 Diet members in opposition to capital punishment seems quite pointless to me. In other words, if I were opposed to capital punishment, I’d think that it would be better to wait for a more opportune time to push for a free vote. (Unless you’re a Quebec separatist, you can’t just keep holding these sorts of votes until you get the results you want.)

A poll is no more than a way to measure the pulse of a nation. By their nature, they are “token” polls. They are not meant to replace actual elections. But those who cite the 80 percent figure are also doing nothing more than presenting a picture of how the nation as a whole most likely feels about this issue. (Nobody is asserting that the results of such polls are legally binding.) I still say that a poll (if done properly) of 5,000 respondents is likely to be statistically valid for Japan. Make of that what you will.

I simply don’t know enough of the background behind what you state in your last paragraph so I’ll say this much: the system may (or may not) need to be tweaked. But when it comes to the obvious cases, such as this one involving Miyazaki, there should be no qualms about putting the guilty to death.

5000 is on the large size for a poll from what I usually see in US polling.

Unless there is fairly clear demand for a referendum, I don’t see the point (on any issue). You should at least need the chance of victory and I haven’t seen any indications that a majority of Japanese oppose the death penalty. If there was to be a referendum, it should be on Japanese support for non-UN sanctioned SDF deployment, SDF peacekeeping deployment, Article 9 revision or the national flag and anthem, where there do seem to be clear sentiments and controversies among Japanese citizens.

Recently, on my blog I posted about the death penalty which got one long comment from a supporter of the death penalty which I decided to allow to just the opposite view, the same person tried to post a second long comment which I refused because I thought the first one was enough.
Death Penalty comment