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Thread: Japan Executions 2019

  1. #1
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Japan Executions 2019

    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
    Last edited by Mike; 08-01-2019 at 11:17 PM.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. #2
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Chinese murderer of family of four executed in Japan

    by Masumi Koizumi
    Japan Times

    A Chinese man on death row for the 2003 slaying of a family of four was executed in Fukuoka on Thursday, marking the first inmate put to death since Justice Minister Masako Mori took office Oct. 31.

    Wei Wei, who had studied in Japan, was sentenced to death for the murder-robbery of a family in Fukuoka Prefecture. The victims included an 11-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl.

    “For a self-serving purpose, the convict killed all the family members. … This is an extremely ruthless crime,” Mori said during a news conference.

    “We regarded very seriously the killing of four innocent people.”

    Wei, 40, conspired with two other Chinese men and killed Shinjiro Matsumoto, 41, a clothing dealer, his wife, Chika, 40, their son, Kai, 11, and daughter, Hina, 8, on June 20, 2003, and stole about ¥37,000 in cash. Their bodies were found the same day in Hakata Bay, handcuffed and weighted down with dumbbells.

    The two accomplices fled to China where they were arrested. One of them was executed there in 2005 and the other was given a life sentence.

    Wei’s death sentence was finalized in 2011. Prior to the murder, the three had been involved in various robberies.

    In a statement released on the same day, international human rights group Amnesty International’s Japanese arm lambasted the execution of Wei, noting that it went ahead while he was seeking a retrial.

    “Appealing for a retrial is part of the processes stipulated in the criminal procedure law,” the group said.

    “They should have begun a process for suspending the execution while he was demanding a retrial. Failing to do so runs counter to the international human rights law.”

    The statement also said Japan is turning its back on the global trend to abolish capital punishment, with more than 70 percent of the countries in the world having done away with the system legally or effectively.

    In 2018, the group logged at least 690 executions — the lowest number in 10 years — in 20 countries including Japan, compared with at least 993 executions in 23 countries a year earlier, according to its report released in April.

    In an interview with reporters shortly after assuming her ministerial post, Mori defended the nation’s capital punishment system.

    “In cases of extremely brutal and heinous crimes, such a form of punishment is unavoidable,” she said.

    She added, however, that imposing the death penalty requires thorough consideration from various angles and due process.

    The last time the death sentence was carried out was Aug. 2.

    The latest execution has brought the total number of hangings since the start of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s current tenure in 2012 to 39.

    There are currently 111 prisoners on death row, the ministry said.

    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20.../#.XgTbbHdFyUl

    The man that was executed in China was named Yang Ning you can read more about him and the crime here.
    Last edited by Mike; 12-26-2019 at 11:14 AM.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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