Japan opens up execution chambers to media for first time

Aug 27, 2010, 11:16 GMT

Tokyo - Japan's Justice Ministry opened up its death chamber to local media for the first time Friday to spark debate about the use of capital punishment, the ministry said.

The ministry let reporters take still and moving images at the Tokyo Detention House. Reporters were allowed to view the execution chamber equipped with a trapdoor and gallows.

Japan's execution chambers have rarely been opened to the public because, 'they are solemn places,' a Justice Ministry official was quoted by Kyodo News as saying.

The ministry did not show the rope used to hang the condemned or the space where the bodies are collected. The location of the death chamber in the detention house was not given 'due to security reasons.'

According to a Kyodo News poll in early August, 75.9 per cent of those surveyed were in favour of the death penalty.

When Keiko Chiba, a lawyer and an outspoken opponent of capital punishment, became justice minister in September, she was expected to adopt a moratorium following 15 executions in 2008, the most in 33 years.

Chiba, however, became the first justice minister to witness an execution when Hidenori Ogata and Kazuo Shinozawa were hanged in late July, the first under the government led by the Democratic Party of Japan.

Japan has carried out executions every year since 1993. No prisoner was put to death while Megumu Sato, a Buddhist, was justice minister from 1989 to 1993.

Japan is one of a few developed countries that still has capital punishment, for which the country has been criticized by human rights groups, the United Nations and the European Union.