Four death row inmates hanged

(following are three different reports: Kyodo, Japan Times, and the Asahi's coverage of the April 10 executions)

Thursday 10th April, 01:54 PM JST

Kyodo News.

Four death row inmates were hanged Thursday, Justice Minister Yukio Hatoyama said, bringing the total number of inmates executed under his orders to 10 in three rounds of executions during a four-month period.

Among the four who were hanged were Kaoru Akinaga, 61, who changed his family name from Okashita, and Masahito Sakamoto, 41, both of whom were executed at the Tokyo Detention House. The other two were Masaharu Nakamura, 61, and Katsuyoshi Nakamoto, 64, both executed at the Osaka Detention House.

The 10 executions under Hatoyama mark the fastest pace of executions since the Justice Ministry resumed executions in 1993 after a pause of three years and four months.

The cumulative total of inmates executed reached 67 after Thursday’s executions, while the number of inmates on death row now stands at 104.

Thursday’s executions apparently showed the Justice Ministry’s determination to speed up the pace of executions in the wake of an increasing number of death row inmates in the country, despite international calls for a moratorium on executions.

‘‘I have to make a very painful announcement,’’ Hatoyama said at a press conference in which he reported the executions. ‘‘I carried out my duty as a justice minister without making a fuss, and I have not thought about the number (of executed inmates).’’

Human rights groups harshly condemned the executions, with Amnesty International Japan saying, ‘‘The abolition of the death penalty is now a global trend, with 135 countries legally or effectively terminating it, but Japan goes against the trend, and moreover, it has accelerated executions.’’

Makoto Miyazaki, chairman of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, issued a statement strongly urging the government to suspend executions so the public can debate its appropriateness.

Hatoyama once proposed omitting the current requirement for the justice minister to sign execution orders.

According to the finalized rulings, Akinaga killed two people in 1989. The Tokyo District Court sentenced him to life imprisonment, saying the murders were unplanned, but the Tokyo High Court imposed the death sentence, which was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Sakamoto was accused of killing a 16-year-old high school student in 2002 and demanding a ransom from her father. He was initially sentenced to life imprisonment, but then sentenced to death at the Tokyo High Court. He did not appeal the ruling.

Nakamura killed two people in 1989, while Nakamoto murdered a jewelry dealer and his wife in 1982.

© 2008 Kyodo News.


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Japan Times

Hatoyama 'solemnly' reveals four more convicts hanged
Justice minister ties predecessor's tally with 10 executions since August

By JUN HONGO
Staff writer

Four death-row inmates were hanged Thursday, bringing to 10 the number of executions Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama has approved since he took office last August.

Hatoyama released the names and details of the inmates — in line with the new disclosure policy he earlier introduced — at a hastily arranged news conference.

"I must (issue) a very sad notice," he told reporters before revealing that Masato Sakamoto, 41, and Kaoru Akinaga, 61, went to the gallows at the Tokyo Detention House, while Katsuyoshi Nakamoto, 64, and Masaharu Nakamura, 61, were executed at the Osaka Detention House.

Hatoyama in December approved three hangings and three more in February.

His third round of executions cut the number of death-row inmates to 104, while putting him even with his predecessor, Jinen Nagase, who approved 10 executions during an 11-month stint in office.

Hatoyama explained that Thursday's hangings "brought down the number of death-row inmates to the level it was when I became justice minister," but later clarified that this figure does not play a role in his judgment when approving executions.

Repeating the term "solemnly" several times during the 15-minute news conference, Hatoyama stated that he is merely "taking care of duties as a justice minister" in signing the approvals.

The Justice Ministry said Sakamoto kidnapped a 16-year-old high school girl in July 2002 and strangled her after raping her in Seta, Gunma Prefecture. He demanded a ransom from the girl's family and got ¥230,000.

The Maebashi District Court handed him a life term on grounds that the murder was not premeditated, but the Tokyo High Court in October 2004 sentenced him to hang. Sakamoto, who already had a criminal record that included burglary and an assault on an 8-year-old girl, did not file an appeal with the Supreme Court.

Akinaga, who changed his name from Okashita while on death row, conspired with two acquaintances in July 1989 to defraud an 82-year-old landlord in Tokyo's Suginami Ward. He obtained ¥208 million by selling her property and later choked her to death. Akinaga then shot an accomplice in the head and decapitated him during a quarrel over the money.

The case unraveled five years after the murders when Akinaga was arrested for possession of illegal stimulants and questioned by police.

The Tokyo District Court handed him a life term but the Tokyo High Court later sentenced him to hang. The Supreme Court upheld this ruling in March 2005.

Nakamoto fatally stabbed a 70-year-old jewelry dealer and his wife in May 1982 while burglarizing the couple's home in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture. He stole ¥24,000 and fled but returned three days later to steal more jewelry.

The Supreme Court finalized his death sentence in January 1997. Nakamoto had maintained his innocence.

Nakamura was convicted for tricking an unidentified man in his 60s into taking sleeping pills in October 1989, causing the victim to suffer fatal brain damage. The killer sexually abused the man at a park in Takashima, Shiga Prefecture, before dismembering the corpse with kitchen knives and saws.

Nakamura cut up a 52-year-old man in a similar manner two months later and left the decapitated body inside a well in the same area.

His defense argued that Nakamura was schizophrenic and thus should not be held liable for his crimes, but the Supreme Court finalized his sentence in September 2004.

Although Hatoyama told the news conference that he approved the executions after "careful and thorough examination of each case," human rights groups and lawyers were quick to denounce the multiple hangings.

Pointing out that there have been four cases in which a death-row inmate was pronounced innocent in retrials, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations demanded the government halt executions until improvements are made in the justice system.

"The government should not rush into approving executions," but instead discuss the morality and propriety of capital punishment, the federation's president, Makoto Miyazaki, said in a statement.

The federation also criticized the Justice Ministry for its lack of concern over overseas demands on the question of capital punishment, noting that Thursday's hangings reveal the government's eagerness to continue ignoring an international trend to abolish executions.

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Hatoyama seals executions of 4 killers

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Four convicted murderers were executed Thursday, bringing to 10 the number of convicts hanged since Kunio Hatoyama became justice minister in August 2007.

"I will continue (to sign execution orders) in a calm and orderly manner," Hatoyama told a news conference.

There are now 104 inmates on death row.

Three inmates were executed in December and three others in February.

With the four executions Thursday, the pace of death sentences being carried out under Hatoyama is faster than the rate under his predecessor, Jinen Nagase.

Nagase signed execution orders for 10 inmates in three installments during his 11 months as justice minister. The 10 executions are a record under one justice minister since capital punishment was resumed in 1993 after a hiatus of three years and four months.

Hatoyama, an advocate of speeding up executions, sparked controversy in September by saying a justice minister's authorization should not be needed for carrying out an execution.

Three of the four men hanged Thursday were executed within four years of their death sentences being finalized.

During the 10 years through 2007, the average period between a finalized death sentence and the execution was about eight years.

According to Justice Ministry officials, the four murderers executed Thursday were: Katsuyoshi Nakamoto, 64; Masaharu Nakamura, 61; Masahito Sakamoto, 41; and Kaoru Okashita, 61.

Nakamoto and Nakamura were hanged at the Osaka Detention House, while Sakamoto and Okashita were put to death at the Tokyo Detention House.

Nakamoto was convicted of murdering a jewelry dealer and his wife in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, and stealing cash and jewels in 1982.

Nakamura killed a homeless man and a former co-worker in Shiga Prefecture in 1989 for money and other purposes. He also dismembered their bodies and dumped their body parts.

Sakamoto forced a female high school student into his car and strangled her in Gunma Prefecture in 2002. He also phoned her parents demanding ransom money while pretending the girl was still alive.

Okashita strangled the owner of an apartment building in Tokyo's Suginami Ward in 1989 with an accomplice. Later, he shot the accomplice to death and pretended that his cohort was the one who had murdered the apartment building owner.(IHT/Asahi: April 11,2008)