Japan executes two murderers in Tokyo and Fukuoka
Japan Times
Japan executed two death row inmates Friday morning, the first executions since last December, government sources said.
The executions were ordered by Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita. Executions were carried out for Koichi Shoji, 64, at Tokyo Detention House and Yasunori Suzuki, 50, at Fukuoka Detention House. The Justice Ministry was to brief the media later.
Shoji had killed two women in Kanagawa Prefecture in 2001, while Suzuki murdered three women in Fukuoka Prefecture in 2004 and 2005.
This marks the first executions since two death row inmates who killed a company president and an employee at the firm were hanged on Dec. 27 in Osaka. Friday’s hangings brought the number of executions under the current administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who retook office in 2012, to 38.
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations has called for capital punishment to be abolished by 2020 and replaced with lifetime imprisonment.
Last December, Japanese lawmakers formed a group to discuss the future of the system. More than 50 lawmakers from ruling and opposition parties are taking part in the discussions.
Japan executed 15 death row inmates last year, including 13 former members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult in July. The 2018 figure matched 2008 for the most executions in a single year since 1993, when Japan resumed the use of the death penalty.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20.../#.XUO3ZHdFyUl
More on Koichi Shoji
November 6, 2007
— The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced to death a man convicted of murdering and robbing two women in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 2001. Koichi Shoji, 53, in conspiracy with his girlfriend, Fumiyo Yamamoto, 45, fatally stabbed a 54-year-old female acquaintance of Yamato and stole 230,000 ($2,150) yen in cash from her in August 2001, according to lower court rulings.
The following month, the couple killed a 42-year-old acquaintance of Yamamoto by drowning her in a bathtub, and stole 60,000 ($560) yen in cash. Yamamoto is now serving a life sentence. Shoji's defense team had sought to overturn the death penalty, arguing that he was in state of diminished responsibility at the time of the crimes and did not bear complete criminal responsibility. (Kyodo News)
http://www.jiadep.org/Shoji_Koichi.html
More on Yasunori Suzuki
February 8, 2008
The Fukuoka High Court on Thursday upheld the death penalty for a 38-year-old man convicted of robbing and killing three women in separate murder-robbery cases in Fukuoka Prefecture during a one-month period from 2004 to 2005.
Yasunori Suzuki targeted women walking alone and strangled Nana Kubota, 18, in Iizuka on Dec 12, 2004 and Toshiko Onaka, 62, in Kitakyushu on Dec 31, 2004. He stabbed Keiko Fukushima, 23, in Fukuoka on Jan 18, 2005, according to the November 2006 Fukuoka District Court ruling upheld by the appeals court. (Kyodo News)
http://www.jiadep.org/Suzuki_Yasunori.html
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