Japan Hangs 3 Death-Row Inmates

Friday, February 01, 2008

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TOKYO —

Japan executed three men for murder Friday, including a convicted rapist who stabbed to death a previous victim in revenge for testifying against him, the government said.

Prison officials hanged Takashi Mochida in Tokyo, Masahiko Matsubara in the western city of Osaka, and Keishi Nago in southern Fukuoka, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

Friday's executions were the second since the ministry started disclosing the identities of those executed and details of their crimes, following calls for more transparency. The last executions _ also of three men _ were in December.

Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama, a staunch supporter of the death penalty, said the hangings were in line with his push to speed up the pace of executions in Japan.

"We carried out the executions solemnly after carefully examining each case, rather than considering timing and intervals of the punishment," he said.

Mochida, 65, was executed for the 1997 murder of a woman he had raped eight years earlier. The ministry said the murder was in revenge for reporting the rape, for which he was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Matsubara, 63, was convicted of killing, raping and robbing two women in separate cases in 1988 after he broke into their homes.

In one case, he knocked a 61-year-old woman on the floor, strangled her with an electrical chord, raped her and stole $260. About two months later, Matsubara broke into another home and strangled, raped and robbed a 44-year-old woman.

Nago, 37, was convicted of stabbing to death his brother's 40-year-old wife and 17-year-old daughter with a dozen thrusts of a sashimi knife. He also attacked his brother's 13-year-old son, but the boy survived.

Japan, one of the few industrialized nations to retain the death penalty, has faced criticism by human rights activists for keeping execution details secret.

Until 1998 the government only provided the number of executions in annual statistics. It then started giving the number of people hanged on the day of the hangings, allowing international human rights groups to track Japan's record.

Until last year, the ministry refused to reveal any other information, including the convicts' names, saying the disclosure would distress their families and others on death row.

The ministry changed the policy following requests from families and their supporters. The ministry also is attempting to promote public support for capital punishment through greater disclosure.

Still, Japan's practice of not notifying relatives until after executions drew condemnation Friday.

"This is appalling," Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis said in a statement. "There are no civilized ways to execute a human being, but there are varying degrees of inhumanity. The Japanese procedure is as inhumane as it gets."

Japan is an observer country at the council, whose 47 members do not allow capital punishment.

Last year, Japan executed nine convicts.