The
following comments were made by Justice Minister Hatoyama
in the magazine Shuukan Asahi, published
October 26, 2007 P.121~125.
Title "The Reason I will carry out Executions."
Interview with Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama
Partial translation by Michael H. Fox
Q: There is a big trend to abolish the death penalty
worldwide. Why do you want to keep it in Japan?
A: The Japanese place so much importance on the value of
life, so it is thought that one should pay with one's life
after taking the life of another. You see, the Western
nations are civilizations based on power and war. So,
conversely, things are moving against the death penalty.
This is an important point to understand. The so called
civilizations of power and war are opposite (from us). From
incipient stages, their conception of the value of life is
weaker than the Japanese. Therefore, they are moving toward
abolishment of the death penalty. It is important that this
discourse on civilizations be understood.
Q) You are very critical of of the future plan to raise the
passing rate for the Bar exam.?
When we examine the problem from the viewpoint of
government and administration, I think that Japanese
civilization will suffer the most. As the Japanese respect
the value of life, there is a strong and pressing demand to
maintain order. Similarly, Japan is a civilization of
beauty and compassion, a civilization of harmony. This is
not to sanction collusion (dango), but engaging in dialogue
and reciprocal understanding is a wonderful characteristic
of Japanese civilization. The fact is, since the West is a
very dry civilization, it's all right to take everything to
court. This type of thinking will disrupt and erase the
very best parts of Japan.
Comments: Hatoyama continually refers to "the West" as one
homogeneous uniform entity. Thus the "civilization" of
Rotterdam, Cordoba, Stuttgart, Milan and Minneapolis are
singular and the same.