TOKYO —

Nippon Cultural Broadcasting (NCB) will broadcast the sound of a man being hanged, which was recorded in 1955, as part of a special radio program on May 6 about capital punishment in Japan.

According to NCB, the tape was made by the warden of the Osaka prison for “educational purposes” for staff as well as to request better welfare for prisoners in 1955. The tape records the sound of a prisoner who is given a last cigarette by prison staff and of the trapdoor opening and rope jerking as the hanging proceeds. NCB said the tape has already been aired once before, in the 1990s.

A spokesperson for NCB said, “We’d like to present this without any script and comments. The program is not trying to be either pro- or anti-capital punishment, but to provide our listeners with an opportunity to think about the issue, which, we believe, is meaningful.”

The program will air from 10 a.m. in the Kanto area on May 6 on NCB’s AM radio network (1134 kHz).

8 Comments

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  some14some at 07:48 AM JST - 17th April

  Before i say it sounds scary the broadcaster may not get consent from concerned authorities.

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  rjd_jr at 08:22 AM JST - 17th April

  In this day and age, I doubt the 'sounds' of hanging will do much to influence or move anybody. Graphic video and images of the hanging of dictators, to name one example, have been all over the world media, so the sound of hanging is rather 'tame' by comparison.

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  Wottock_Hunt at 09:26 AM JST - 17th April

  Some14some - I'm not sure aboutthat. He'll probably be able to swing it. Pull a few strings, and it'll all fall into place.

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  greenteaonsens at 10:04 AM JST - 17th April

  I hope they don't keep us all dangling in suspense.

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  roughneck at 10:07 AM JST - 17th April

  We have seen Saddam's hanging video on YouTube. This wont effect us.

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  Wottock_Hunt at 10:32 AM JST - 17th April

  I'd rather listen to it than watch it. No noose is good news.

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  jambon at 09:37 AM JST - 18th April

  I have no problem with this as long as they broadcast the sounds of the incident that lead to the hanging.

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  DenshaDeGO at 11:18 PM JST - 19th April

  I can think about this issue just fine without hearing someone being hanged ...

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