JAPAN:Death-row inmate wins right to buy book

A detention house must allow a death-row inmate to purchase a book even though he has exceeded his allowed limit of possessions, a Tokyo court ruled on Friday.

Toshiaki Masunaga, 54, a member of a leftist radical group who was sentenced to death in 1987 for committing acts of terrorism, applied to the Tokyo Detention House to purchase a book in 1998.

 But the detention house rejected his request as the Justice Ministry has since 1997 limited the possessions of each death-row inmate to an amount equivalent to 120 % of a 46-liter box.

 At that time, Masunaga already possessed some 77.5 boxes of books and documents related to his trial.

 The Tokyo District Court ruled in favor of Masunaga, saying that he needed many books to maintain his peace of mind.

 Furthermore, the court cited Masunaga's pledge that he would let a relative take possession of the book he wanted to buy after he had finished reading it.

 "Even if the detention house had granted his request, his possessions would not have increased," Presiding Judge Masayuki Fujiyama explained when handing down the ruling.

 After filing the suit, Masunaga disposed of nearly 70 boxes of possessions leading the detention house to allow him to buy the book shortly after. Masunaga was a member of a leftist group, which carried out terror bomb attacks on major businesses in the early 1970s.