Latest 15 of 17 Total Comments Show All

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  sensei258 at 07:47 AM JST - 3rd August

  It may damage their personality? If they've done something to deserve life imprisonment or death, what kind of personality could they already have? And why worry about it? Did they worry about their victims?

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  Triumvere at 07:50 AM JST - 3rd August

  For the death penalty, but against Life w/o parole.... hur?

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  borscht at 09:08 AM JST - 3rd August

  Japan is a shame-sensitive society. That must mean that under-age criminals will now have their names plastered all over the media and internet, thereby shaming them into toeing the public safety line. And 'cruel and does not fit with Japanese culture' must mean that there is no bullying leading to suicides, no intimidation from superiors leading to suicide.

  It is not cruel to be imprisoned on death row and not know from one day to the next if this is your last? And it is not cruel to your family, who will not know you when you will be executed so they can say their last goodbyes? Yes, truly a compassionate system. (before the flaming, no, I don't care about those rightfully convicted and sentenced to death, just pointing out some of Yasuoka's absurdities.)

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  cleo at 11:54 AM JST - 3rd August

  the majority of people support the idea of dying gracefully to pay for a crime

  Methinks there's a glitch in the translation here. Or maybe the glitch is in the Minister.

  Since when was swinging at the end of a rope - after, as other posters have mentioned, never knowing when the end was going to come - 'graceful'?

  If the murderers, rapists, etc etc feel shamed by their life-long imprisonment, let them have the cop-out of voluntary suicide, offered to them say once a year or once a month, whatever. But don't use my tax yen to pay an executioner to commit judicial murder.

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  thepro at 12:09 PM JST - 3rd August

  What the hell is he talking about? He speaks for Japanese people saying they would rather die than be in jail for life?

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  amannin1 at 02:56 PM JST - 3rd August

  what do you have to do differently to get the "death penalty" versus "life without the possibility of parole"? as insensitive (possibly ignorant) as this may sound, personally i say why separate the two?

  and the majority of people support the idea of dying gracefully to pay for a crime

  somehow i doubt the people who earn the death penalty care about dying gracefully -- i know i wouldn't.

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  Bogi at 03:25 PM JST - 3rd August

  what do you have to do differently to get the "death penalty" versus "life without the possibility of parole"?

  As far as I can see, the death penalty is usually passed down in crimes that get over "x" number of hours on the wide shows.

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  Cos at 05:56 PM JST - 3rd August

  I agree "jail forever" is not as cruel as "Japanese style death penalty". If you are innocent, you can hope the former will be overturned. Well in Japan I doubt justice administration ever recognize its blunders, so in that case, yes, that's as cruel.

  So make it life sentence with a possibility of going out after 20 yrs. There are enough Japanese criminals that could get free under weak pretexts (especially after the war) a few more would make no difference. If TV shows doesn't scare them about it, Japanese people really don't care. And 20 years in jail, that's a life. That does alter personnality, then another personality gets out of the cell, hopefully a better one.

  Just one question Mr. Yasuoka, can you tell for sure that 100% of the people in the death row are guilty ? You have that faith in the current Japanese system ? You're certainly the only one. Then what happens in shame culture Japan when you hand a guy that was innocent ? To repay the giri to the families and friends, can we propose the graceful death of the minister of Justice ?

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  hermitage at 06:25 PM JST - 3rd August

  I don't support Mr. Yasuoka's idea, because the proposed life sentece without parole can reduce the number of people on death row. It should be implemented as soon as possible. On the other hand, even today, not all of them on death row are executed, because the Ministry of Justice does some additional scrutinies before execution.

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  sk4ek at 07:45 AM JST - 4th August

  The Minister did indeed use a term that might be translated as "gracefully" (the word was 潔くwhich is sometimes rendered as "with dignity" or "honorably"), and I agree, given the arbitrary timing of most executions here, the concept is almost laughably at odds with reality. And to say that cruel punishments do not fit with "Japanese society" is equally laughable; one need only examine relatively recent history--from the Edo period on--to find any number of examples of shockingly cruel--dare I say barbaric?--punishments, capital and otherwise, meted out to all manner of accused.

  Executions as they are used in Japan today serve no function as a deterent (if anything, the prospect of capital punshiment seems to be supplying an additional motivation in many of the recent random, more florid crimes being reported), do little to assuage the desire for vengence on the part of the victims and/or their families (with sometimes decades between conviction and punishment), and with the secretive but matter-of-fact way in which they are carried out, contribute nothing to building a safer society.

  Japan already has a system of life (or indefinite) imprisonment; for certain heinous crimes, I don't see that adding "without possibility of parole" to the list of options would have any significant impact on the criminal justice system, or society, as a whole.

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  Hoolie at 09:13 AM JST - 4th August

  It's rather simple really - if it turns out that a man was wrongfully convicted, you can commute a life sentence. You can't unhang him.

  Oh wait... nobody is ever wrongfully convicted in Japan. My bad.

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  jeancolmar at 09:37 AM JST - 4th August

  Garbage out, garbage in. Hatoyama out Yasuoka in. The latter's defense of hanging is idiotic, particularly so in that he laces it with Japanese exceptionalism.

  The reality is that people often wait decades to be hung, living degrading conditions.

  Capital punishment is not a deterrent. Recent cases suggest it may have the opposite effect on people who want to die and wish to take some innocent lives with them.

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  USAPatriot at 09:41 AM JST - 4th August

  Jeancolmer- Good points.

  The last couple of justice ministers seem rather bloodthirsty.

  My main problem with the death penalty is, i cannot trust the Japanese legal system.

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  KyouNoNippon at 12:02 PM JST - 4th August

  the majority of people support the idea of dying gracefully to pay for a crime

  Methinks there's a glitch in the translation here. Or maybe the glitch is in the Minister.

  Yasuoka: 、「日本は恥の文化を基礎として、潔く死をもって償うことを多くの国民が支持している」

  The word is 潔い　（いさぎよい）　which has a couple definitions in the Japanese dictionary but the one here meant 未練がない (without lingering attachment). Maybe one can translate as:

  "Japan is a culture based in shame and the majority of citizens support paying back (society for a crime) by facing death like a man! (Boo-ya!)"

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  dennis0bauer at 12:57 PM JST - 4th August

  So all those who are to cowardly to kill themselves are assured that if they kill enough innocent people that they will hang "gracefully" from a rope

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