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Misaki Yagishita
Amnesty International, Japan
Today, I would like to report you two issues; 1) we establishes a religious people�s network to call for a moratorium in Japan, 2) recent developments around death penalty in Japan. 1. The Establishment of Religious Community Network, �Call for a Moratorium Now� The religious community network �call for a moratorium now� is a nationwide, interfaith membership network among the religious communities. The purpose of the network is to educate and mobilize faith communities to introduce an immediate moratorium in Japan to think about the death penalty and give many opportunities to discuss about what is life. This network was established when �Community of Sant� Egidio� held the seminar on death penalty �Together for life� on May 23rd 2003 in Tokyo. About 100 people participated in this seminar. The attendants came from NGOs, individuals, professors, lawyers, Diet members and many people from different religious faiths working for the abolishment of death penalty. At the end of the seminar, we adopted the proposals to establish a religious people�s network. The main activities of the network are 1) to exchange information, 2) to do joint actions, 3) to hold a meeting every year. The main speakers at the seminar from the religious communities become key members of the network, for example, the Oomoto foundation, the Ohtani sect of the Shinshu, which is a buddhist group, the Seimeizan Schweitzer Temple, some catholic groups and the National Christian Council in Japan. Amnesty International Japan become a secretariat of the network. As you know, Japan still keeps death penalty. However, current international stream to abolish death penalty is strong and is widely spread. The majority of the countries has abolished death penalty. As for the Asian countries, the movement toward abolishment of death penalty occurs in South Korea and Taiwan at national level. In South Korea, we heard the religious group became a key player to energize the movement to abolish death penalty. We expect the network play such a role in Japan. In this fall, the network plans to gather petitions to urge the moratorium and to held a seminar on death penalty on November 29 in Tokyo. As Secretary General of Saint Egidio, Prof. Quatrucci pointed out that it is necessary to discuss death penalty more, especially in Japan, because death penalty is executed secretly. We hope the religious network will expand more, and more Japanese people have the opportunities to speak about the death penalty and think about the death. 2. The recent developments around death penalty in Japan There are 3 main developments around death penalty in Japan: 1) The Japan Federation of Bar Associations submitted its recommendations on the death penalty system in Japan in Nov. 2002. 2) In July 2003, the league of diet members group prepares the bill toward the abolishment of death penalty in Japan but they failed to submit it to the diet because the opposition power prevented it. 3) Some diet members visited execution chamber in Tokyo detention house in July 2003. It was the first time in 30 years that the Ministry of Justice has allowed outsiders to view any of its execution chambers. As you know the international criticism against the Japan�s death penalty system becomes intensive, especially because executions are conducted secretly and death-row inmates face harsh conditions, including complete isolation and strict restrictions on their communication and contacts with people from the outside. Death row inmates in Japan are not informed of their executions until the morning of their execution day, so they live under the shadow of death every day for several years after their sentence is finalized. Given these factors, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, which is the organization all of lawyers in Japan should join, urged the government last November to disclose more information about the capital punishment system if it intends to cite public opinion as a major reason for maintaining the death penalty. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations issued a report whose title is �Recommendations on Capital Punishment System� in November 2002. The details of the recommendations are as follows: 1. to enact the moratorium act so that the issue of whether to retain or abolish the capital punishment might be discussed thoroughly and extensively by the Japanese public and necessary improvement or reforms might be made on it, 2 (1) to improve the criminal justice system regarding death penalty, (2) to promote a nationwide discussion on the death penalty whether Japan should abolish or retain it, (3) to realize the disclosure of information on the death penalty (4) to recommend an alternative punishment in place of death penalty (5) to support murder victims� families, recover damages and establish their rights. In this summer, �the League of diet members against death penalty� (Chairman : Mr. Shizuka Kamei) prepares the bill to make a step forward toward the abolishment of the death penalty in Japan. The bill prepared by the diet members league against the death penalty has 3 points: (1) to introduce life imprisonment without parole, (2) to establish an ad-hoc committee to discuss about whether Japan should keep or retain death penalty, (3) to introduce a moratorium until the ad-hoc committee reaches a conclusion. It is the first time a bill related to abolishing the death penalty will be submitted to the Diet since 1956. The league took 10 years to make a draft of the bill. But the diet league failed to submit the bill in the last session of the diet because the opposition power among the ruling party was quite strong even though the chairman of the league is one of powerful member of the ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party. Among the abolitionists in Japan, there are different views over the bill because the bill introduces another cruel punishment, a life sentence without parole. Mr. Kamei, the chairman of the 122-member multiparty league said that the introduction of life sentence without parole should become a milestone toward abolition of death penalty in Japan. Actually, the latest public opinion poll in February 2003 shows that 29.9% agrees to abolish the death penalty if the life imprisonment without parole is introduced. 45.7% agrees to maintain death penalty and only 2.1% agrees to abolish the death penalty immediately. While the diet league struggled to submit the bill to the diet within the session, the ministry of justice accepted to show the execution chamber to nine members of the House of Representatives Judicial Affairs committee. On July 23 morning, 9 diet members visited the execution chamber at Tokyo detention house. Execution chambers located in detention houses rather than prisons because the government regards death-row inmates as convicts awaiting the execution of their sentences not those serving a prison term. Only a few media in Japan reported that story. Some English newspapers including Japan Times and the Associated Press reported the story. Therefore a historic visit to execution chambers did not give an impact to think about the death penalty in Japan among the Japanese publics. Conclusion There have been several positive developments toward the abolishment of death penalty in Japan. But it is a long and long road to go to reach the abolishment of the death penalty in Japan. First of all, we have to stop the execution. We need more supports to our activities especially from outside of Japan. The religious network in Japan just enters a beginning stage so we need your support, too. Keep watching the Japan�s death penalty situation and give us your supports. Today we bring petition papers to submit the Minister of Justice to urge to introduce an immediate moratorium. Please sign the petition when you leave this room. Thank you for your cooperation.
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