Japan executes three inmates

The first executions since Shinzo Abe took over as prime minister in December were carried out Thursday as three inmates were hanged, including a repeat sex offender who kidnapped and killed a 7-year-old girl.

Kaoru Kobayashi, 44, murdered his young victim in Nara Prefecture in 2004.

The other two prisoners executed were Masahiro Kanagawa, 29, who was involved in a 2008 serial murder case in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, and Keiki Kano, 62, convicted of a 2002 murder in Nagoya.

“Each (murder) incident was cruel that took away precious lives,” Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said during a hastily arranged news conference.

According to the Justice Ministry, there were 133 inmates on death row as of Dec. 31, the most on record.

Tanigaki expressed a positive stance toward executions in a news conference in December when he was appointed justice minister.

“The death penalty system has adequate grounds and I will perform my duties under relevant laws,” he said.

Nine people were hanged during the three years and three months that the Democratic Party of Japan was in power until Abe took over.

The Justice Ministry established a panel to study capital punishment in 2010, but it was later terminated by Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa, who assumed his post in January 2012.

Under the DPJ administration, the ministry’s top officials discussed the method — hanging — and whether inmates should be informed beforehand of their execution.

Japan is one of only a few advanced countries that still has capital punishment.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/201.../#.USXVATeGRih