Crime Jan. 16, 2012 - 02:00AM JST ( 13 )

TOKYO —

New Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa has indicated that he may be planning to resume issuing orders for executions, but added that he is unlikely to sign any such orders soon.

Ogawa’s remarks, made at his first news conference on Friday night, come at a time when Japan’s total number of death row inmates has risen to 129.

Last year, there were no executions in Japan. The last execution in Japan was in July 2010 when then justice minister Keiko Chiba, a former lawyer, approved the hanging of two inmates, despite her long-time opposition to the death penalty.

In an unusual move, Chiba attended the executions and later allowed the media to visit the execution chamber at the Tokyo Detention House in a bid to increase public debate over the death penalty.

Ogawa said ordering executions is a tough thing to do, but it is part of his duty nonetheless, NHK reported. He said that just increasing the number of inmates on death row with no executions would be contrary to the spirit of the law.

However, Ogawa said that he would most likely not issue execution orders in the near future for any of the 13 members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult on death row. Following the arrest of former Aum fugitive Makoto Hirata and his accomplice Akemi Saito who turned themselves in, Ogawa said that investigators may need to hear testimony from Aum inmates in their case, NHK reported.

Apart from the United States, Japan is the only major industrialized democracy to carry out capital punishment, a practice that has earned Tokyo repeat protests from European governments and human rights groups.

Japan Today