Saturday May 26, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Man sentenced to death for pachinko parlor arson-murders

Crime Nov. 01, 2011 - 06:45AM JST ( 36 )

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36 Comments

4

Hide SuzukiNov. 01, 2011 - 07:05AM JST

I didn't know Japan still execute criminals by hanging. I'm not against it though, he killed 5 people for no reason. He just got what he deserved, I'm glad they didn't fall for the usual defense of suspect being mentall ill and coudln't tell right from wrong crap.
3

Mirai HayashiNov. 01, 2011 - 08:00AM JST

Hanging is harsh, but he does deserve the death penalty
2

Kevin Lee BrookeNov. 01, 2011 - 08:11AM JST

Justice, DONE!
2

zichiNov. 01, 2011 - 08:17AM JST

No one deserves the death penalty, it's just murder by the state.

"executions has significantly dropped"

there hasn't been a significant drop since the number on Death Row is always around 100. Less than 80 would be significant.

"Article 36 of the Constitution which prohibits cruel punishment"

spending 30, 40 years on Death Row living in total isolation is a cruel punishment.
-6

Elbuda MexicanoNov. 01, 2011 - 08:21AM JST

Lots and lots of Japanese scum bags have nothing better to do than go to pachinko, try to make some easy money, meet other scums there at the pachinko and PLAN their next crimes! This is straight from my Japanese wife's mouth and her parents so I stay away from scummy places like pachinko. Long live the death penalty!! May this criminal burn in hell for all of eternity!
5

CrazyJoeNov. 01, 2011 - 09:01AM JST

If this does not deserve the death penalty, what does? Capital punishment laws would be meaningless.
-2

jforceNov. 01, 2011 - 09:21AM JST

Selfish act. People died as a result, thus, murder. Not sure what kind of rehab would make this person able to adjust back into society if given the chance, and I'm not sure letting him rot in jail for the rest of his life would be any better. Still, if they closed down a few pachinko parlors that might be enough to cover the costs for his detention for life. Hanging? Barbaric. Not sure there is any justice is simple deletion of a problem, but it may give some closure.
0

zichiNov. 01, 2011 - 09:32AM JST

He should spend the rest of his life in prison, but not on Death Row.

Abolishing the death penalty would not be a major issue, since unlike America with more than two million in prisons, the largest number in the world, and more than 3,000 on Death Row, In Japan there are only about 100 inmates on Death Row.

Anyway, many will spend decades, some more than 40 years, in total isolation before their sentence is carried out.
-1

Kevin Lee BrookeNov. 01, 2011 - 09:42AM JST

"No one deserves the death penalty, it's just murder by the state"

That' just YOUR opinion - it doesn't make it a fact.

In my opinion, child rapists/murders deserve to be tortured slowly until they die. That, unfortunately is not possible, so the death penalty is the next best thing.

This guy murdered multiple people for greed. He might not be next in line on my list of those who deserve to die, but he is close to the top.
-4

soldaveNov. 01, 2011 - 09:43AM JST

Is the death penalty for the deaths that came from the arson, or for torching the pachinko parlors themselves? Japan loves its pachinko cash cows.
0

gogogoNov. 01, 2011 - 09:55AM JST

Did the guy give any reason to why he torched it? Why the judge thinks it is extremely cruel? Obviously people died but more info please.
-1

RJS PRESSROOMNov. 01, 2011 - 10:01AM JST

He deserve what he got. No one has rights to take life from another human being!!!
0

Joselito AsiNov. 01, 2011 - 10:01AM JST

Cruel punishment for cruel acts made.
0

nec123aNov. 01, 2011 - 10:12AM JST

/.....so a mentally unstable human will be murdered by the state to satisfy the blood lust of the small minded. The death penalty is for the unenlightened only.
2

zichiNov. 01, 2011 - 10:17AM JST

A major problem with having a death penalty is that sometimes innocent people are also executed. In recent years, several inmates were released from the Japanese Death Row, but only after spending many decades there. There was the recent execution of a man in America who was found guilty purely on witness evidence.
2

Hide SuzukiNov. 01, 2011 - 11:45AM JST

@zichi I see your point but you know what ? In Japan, most people who get death penalty don't get executed. They only execute one, at most two a year, and way more people get death penalty than that. Most of the time the ones who get executed are those who show no remorse, cause problems within prison and there is clear evidence against their crimes. There have been some controversial cases but they rarely, if ever, get get executed.
-2
zichiNov. 01, 2011 - 12:22PM JST
128 countries have scrapped their execution chambers, including the Philippines and Cambodia and a growing number, including South Korea and Taiwan are debating abolition.

About half of the people on death row claim they are not guilty of all or part of the charges for which they have been condemned. They include former pro-boxer Hakamada Iwao, a death-row inmate who has protested his innocence of murdering a Shimizu family for four decades. One of the three judges who sentenced Hakamada in 1968 said last month he believes he deserves a retrial. “I thought [the evidence produced at the trial] did not make sense,” said Kumamoto Norimichi, who nevertheless went along at the time with the 360-page judgment. Hakamada’s application for a retrial has been rejected by the Tokyo High Court and the Supreme Court.

Of the G8 nations, only Japan and the United States still use capital punishment.

Was the execution of Kuma Michitoshi in 2008 an innocent man?

http://www.jiadep.org/Kuma_Michitoshi.html

List of Seven Death Row Inmates Supported by Amnesty International
1. Okunishi Masaru 奥西勝さん
2. Hakamada Iwao 袴田巌さん
3. Arai Masao 荒井政男さん
4. Kanekawa Hajime 金川一さん
5. Ohmori Katsuhisa 大森勝久さん
6. Sasaki Tetsuya 佐々木哲也さん
7. Matsumura Seichiroh 村松誠一郎さん
0

zichiNov. 01, 2011 - 12:34PM JST

This is a good article on the Japanese death penalty system

"Death Men Walking"

http://www.japanfocus.org/-C_M_-Mason/2402
0

Elbuda MexicanoNov. 01, 2011 - 12:49PM JST

Sorry Zichi, you are completely wrong about the death penalty. Japan KNOWS it works, that why we let scum criminals hang, wish it were faster though like over in Malaysia so scum twisted criminals like that fool Asahara Shoko the god on earth for that crazy cult Aum Shinrikyo would hang ASAP, but my guess the Japanese police are using him as a bait to bring out the rest of his nutty, crazy believers who may still be in hiding.
0

zichiNov. 01, 2011 - 12:56PM JST

Elbuda

"Sorry Zichi, you are completely wrong about the death penalty" you are entitled to your opinion, as I.

I guess that 128 countries, and 17 American States have got it wrong then?
-1
DentShopNov. 01, 2011 - 01:55PM JST

This is straight from my Japanese wife's mouth and her parents

Phew! Fortunately Japanese wives are experts on such matters. Thank goodness you dont have to use your energy thinking for yourself.
- ModeratorNov. 01, 2011 - 01:58PM JST
  
  Back on topic please.
0

YubaruNov. 01, 2011 - 02:03PM JST

Japan KNOWS it works, that why we let scum criminals hang, wish it were faster though like over in Malaysia so scum twisted criminals like that fool Asahara Shoko the god on earth for that crazy cult Aum Shinrikyo would hang ASAP, but my guess the Japanese police are using him as a bait to bring out the rest of his nutty, crazy believers who may still be in hiding.

If Japan and Japanese people KNOW it works then why are there people continuing to murder others knowing very well that they themselves could get the death penalty as well?

Having the death penalty as a punishment does absolutely nothing to prevent crimes from happening. People who commit murder usually do not consider or even think of the consequences prior to performing the act.

The death penalty is just institutionalized murder and revenge by the state to appease it's need to want to show justice.

Living one's life out in prison, particularly a Japanese prison, with no human contact, in pretty much silence, is just as harsh a punishment and is not a cop out like using death by hanging. Death for criminal's like this is the easy way out.
1

Tamesu SanNov. 01, 2011 - 03:30PM JST

@soldave

"Is the death penalty for the deaths that came from the arson, or for torching the pachinko parlors themselves? Japan loves its pachinko cash cows" you know whats up!...Perhaps the yaks paid investment consulting to the judges.
1

Patrick SmashNov. 01, 2011 - 05:18PM JST

Hide Suzuki, actually the ones that they don't execute and leave on death row for 40 years are often the ones that the state really believes cannot be guilty of the crime they were sentenced to hang for. A previous Justice Minister admitted this. Japan still executes people who have committed no crime though. Every nation that has ever had a death sentence has done this. No nation should continue to do this.

Anyone who believes innocent people do not deserve to be killed cannot support the death sentence. Only weirdos with a blood lust or fools who believe their legal system is infallible (Japan's, yeah right) believe that people should be killed by the state. But they wouldn't support posthumous pardons for their own children and loved ones, that's for sure. The case for abolition is indisputable for anyone who understands that legal systems are imperfect and thinks that innocent civilians should not be strung up by their own governments.
0

Tom DeMickeNov. 01, 2011 - 05:57PM JST

The death penalty is to me considered "State-sponsored Terrorism" and any nation that carries it out should be added to the list of nations on the "Axis of Evil". Period!
2

zichiNov. 01, 2011 - 10:23PM JST

Elbuda,

I'm frequently shocked, even disturbed by many of your comments. I find them crude ans even racist.

In recent years, several men have been released from Japan's Death Row, after decades of being there. The majority of inmates are there based on no other evidence than self confessions, probably forced.

But in your good book, it's alright if an innocent person is "whacked" provided if sometimes, the guilty are also "whacked".

I don't understand all your comment, the racist bits are confusing, but I think the men on American death row are just about equal numbers for whites and blacks.

"Some dude?" shows your lack of any real compassion or humanity. They are real people with real families.

The death of a single innocent man is far greater and more important than the executions of a 1,000 guilty.
-1

SerranoNov. 01, 2011 - 10:42PM JST

zichi: "No one deserves the death penalty"

You've never had a loved one murdered, have you, zichi?

There are some "people" who do not deserve to live. If it's proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that someone has committed cold-blooded murder, why should they live? Are you willing to pay for their food, clothing, housing and medical care?
2

zichiNov. 01, 2011 - 10:48PM JST

Serrano,

I have never had a loved one murdered, but my views on the death penalty would not change even if I did. Not all people who lose a loved one to murder or violent crime support the death penalty.

See my previous comment about executions costing more than imprisonment.
-1

SerranoNov. 01, 2011 - 10:55PM JST

zichi - Executions certainly should not cost more than food, clothing, housing and medical care for years or decades. I don't want to see executions, but I also don't want murderers living off the taxpayers, me included.
-1

Juan Carlos Barbosa PadillaNov. 01, 2011 - 11:28PM JST

Death penalty is hard, surely that this guy deserves as long as he cut the life of 4 person for his own reasons, probably the goverment is murdering him, but I think is the correct way...

I am impatient to see notices in my city, over the killing of more than 50 people in the Casino Royale in Monterrey, they will not get the death penalty as long as this only applies to military people in Mexico (and surely narcos are not soldiers), but surely they deserve it, being gamblers or not, is not fair to cut the life of innocent people due to the problems of the casino's owner...

At least japanese mafia fix the problems in the dark, but this narco crime was made in the afternoon in one of hours where more people attend the casino... i am unhappy to know that death penalty is illegal in my country still...
-1

YubaruNov. 01, 2011 - 11:29PM JST

Serrano here in Japan the prisoners have to work for their own room and board while in prison, it isnt a free ride and prisons here are nothing like they are in the US. The laws regarding prisons here were for the most part written back during the Meji era and many if not most still hold place today.

Capital punishment is state sponsored murder whether you agree or not is purely up to you. If all you are seeking is revenge for a loved one's death, how does that make you any better than the person who killed/murdered your or anyone else's?

Remember this too, murder's have mothers and fathers too!
1

Stanley52Nov. 02, 2011 - 01:53AM JST

Japanese taxpayers are not only paying to feed and house the foreign criminals, but as an added extra, are even paying them wages for the work they perform in prison.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/kuchikomi/view/cozy-prisons-coddle-foreign-inmates

This equally applies to Japanese prisoners also.
-4

astrogaijinNov. 02, 2011 - 07:35AM JST

I'm happy to see that atleast one country has the skills to actually carry out the death penalty to people who deserve it.
0

ShootandScootNov. 02, 2011 - 09:54PM JST

I don't want to see executions, but I also don't want murderers living off the taxpayers, me included.

For some, everything is about money. I tend to discount their voice.

If the work of prisoners is not covering their expenses, then there is something wrong with the system, not with the fact that the prisoners are still alive.
0

KefkaPalazzoNov. 04, 2011 - 12:54AM JST

this is one of the first hangings i've seen reported from japan in a while. though i don't understand why THIS guy got the death penalty, when men like Masato Shibata who killed 6 children with a crane basically gets a slap ont he wrist and a "don't do it again" kind of thing. both men acted out on behalf of their selfish desires and people ( or in Shibata's case children) died because of their actions. The japanese justice system simply baffles me.