Japan urged to abolish capital punishment

Saturday 10th May, 09:50 AM JST

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14 Comments

franz75 at 01:05 PM JST - 11th May

Coming from a country that abolished death penalty a couple of centuries ago, I'm OK with death penalty. Keeping murderers and rapists in jail with taxpayers money for the rest of their life in counterproductive. They don't fit in our society.
Everton2 at 03:22 PM JST - 11th May

yes get rid of the antiquate system, it has no use or value totally ineffective as a preventative measure
OssanULTRA at 06:04 PM JST - 11th May

You'd think the UN Human Rights Council would have bigger issues to be worried about right now.
akuma1985 at 08:22 PM JST - 11th May

than japan abolish the death sentence is a good think. but UN sucks why japan must abolish it and USA needn t. why does they speak about warcrime which was commit 60 years ago and they let china kill tibetan, israelian kill palestinian. and america kill, torture some people without reason ? what that? UN is unusefull. before urged japan maybe must they urged some other country which respect none human right aka. united state of america. when will they sentence G.W bush for war crime like hitler, sadam husein, some japanese dirigents, and other for the same thinks?_
Sarge at 11:13 PM JST - 11th May

If Japan got rid of the death penalty, the family members of murder victims would protest.
Notginger at 09:02 AM JST - 12th May

I like the way they have to give a couple of examples of European nations, just in case we didn't know. Was that for the American or Japanese readers, I wonder.
Fair dinkum! at 12:50 PM JST - 12th May

Regardless of your stand on capital punishment it is clearly not an effective deterrent. Sadly, most offenders are aware they will face the death penalty for their crime and this is their motivation for it. As for the families of victims wanting the offenders killed, this is in itself a form of premeditated murder. How can revenge be a part of the healing process for the families of victims?
smithinjapan at 05:09 PM JST - 12th May

Mods: Here's my post you removed, calling it 'off-topic'.

"Not likely Japan is going to ever take either request or advice seriously. The death penalty... they won't give that up any time soon; the sex slave issue.... they're just waiting for anyone who can possibly remember to die, and teaching young children that it not only never happened, but that the women were prostitutes who made a good living from it (even though... it never happened)."

Please explain how it's off topic. The opening of the article states: "Japan faced calls for abolishing capital punishment and sincerely responding to wartime sex slavery issues at Friday’s working session of the U.N. Human Rights Council to review the country’s human rights record. "

I touched on both the capital punishment issue and the sex-slave issue, saying Japan is unlikely to make any changes based on UN requests. So..... again..... how is that off topic?
Molenir at 06:29 PM JST - 12th May

How can revenge be a part of the healing process for the families of victims?

Umm, I think you're misunderstanding. Families that seek the death penalty, are not after revenge, but rather Justice. Thats what it really comes down to. While it admittedly depends on the circumstances. For the most part, when a man commits a murder, Justice demands he pay for it with his own life.

I'm personally strongly in favor of the death penalty, and for that matter, in ending the statue of limitations on murder. Should be like in the US, there should be not statue of limitations on murder.
VoXman at 03:08 AM JST - 13th May

akuma1985 I was about to reply to your post, but I think you can just read, smithinjapan's post.

By the way, no need to feel that poor Japan is getting beat up by the UN, they do a great job of beating up the US on a regular basis. Its just Japan's turn...say "hi' to the whales...
smithinjapan at 01:24 PM JST - 13th May

Molenir: "I'm personally strongly in favor of the death penalty, and for that matter, in ending the statue of limitations on murder. Should be like in the US, there should be not statue of limitations on murder."

The statute of limitations on murder should DEFINITELY be limited. It's a very sad sad story when a Japanese guy (usually a guy) can proudly say, "Yep, I killed her," while taking out his trash and not be penalized because the statute of limitations passed and he outsmarted the J-cops. BUT, I don't agree with capital punishment; in my opinion, the person who pushes the button is as bad as the murderer.
Hikozaemon at 05:08 PM JST - 13th May

smithinjapan - may I comment that I think you have mellowed a LOT as of late. I am enjoying your posts much more now.

Capital punishment is one of the hallmarks I think of a backward civilization. The threat of the penalty distorts the justice process itself - it is a huge incentive to confess to a murder in order to avoid the death penalty, especially where conviction rates aer so high in Japan.

Peace
Molenir at 06:51 AM JST - 14th May

Capital punishment is one of the hallmarks I think of a backward civilization.

Yes, a backward civilization. After all, a modern civilization is one that allows its citizens to murder however many people they can get away with, and then puts them in a prison that will then, feed, house, and take care of them for the remainder of their lives, or depending on the country and sentence, until they get out, or need space in the jails.

No, I'd say that the lack of a death penalty is more the hallmark of a naive civilization, rather then a backward one.
cleo at 09:41 AM JST - 14th May

a modern civilization is one that allows its citizens to murder however many people they can get away with

Name one modern country that allows its citizens to murder.

Not having a conveyor-belt system for slaughtering convicts because it's tidier, is not the same as allowing murderers to run amok. Believing that the lack of the death penalty is equivalent to a free pass for murderers, I'd say, is the hallmark of a very, very naive mentality.