RIGHTS-JAPAN: Activists Question the Need for the Hangman’s Noose

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 1 2004 (IPS) - Katatsumuri-kai or the Snail Association is a small group of activists campaigning against the death penalty in Japan.

The group meets every Thursday night at Osaka’s Miyakojima Station on the Tanimachi subway line – about 400 kilometers west of Tokyo – and passes out leaflets for about 30 minutes.

Thursday nights are important to Katatsumuri-kai as the members feel their actions could counter the possibility of a Friday morning execution.

After leafleting, lanterns are lit and then the group walks to the nearby detention center chanting slogans against capital punishment.

Lately, more groups like Katatsumuri-kai have come out against the death penalty – especially after the recent execution of Mamoru Takuma, a Japanese man who stabbed to death eight school children in 2001.

The 40-year-old Japanese was executed by hanging on Sep. 14, along with another convicted murderer who killed three gangsters.

Takuma, who had a history of mental illness, was sentenced to death last year when a judge ruled he was responsible for his actions. His attack, which stunned Japan, led to a tightening of security in the country’s schools.

Takuma admitted the killings and is said to have shown little remorse, reportedly telling the court in June 2003 that he could have killed more children if he had attacked a kindergarten.

But the speed with which he was executed has raised concern.

It is unusual for executions to be carried out in Japan so soon after a death sentence has been passed, and human rights groups have criticised the decision.

”The government explains the execution was carried out at the request of Takuma. But the act, taken so quickly, was to send an important message – that Japan will not be lenient on criminals,” Akiko Takada, the head of the Forum Against the Death Penalty – a civic group of activists, lawyers, academics and ordinary citizens – told IPS.

”Recently sentences on criminals have been growing harsher and Takuma is one example. The public who want something done supports this stance to control crime,” explained Takada.

In and out of mental hospitals, the unemployed Takuma ran amok with a kitchen knife in a primary school in Osaka and ordered his lawyers to demand an early death sentence for him.

During his trial doctors declared Takuma was mentally stable, leading to his death sentence.

The Japanese media has portrayed him as a monster, detailing how he refused to show any remorse, ate sweets in prison, married for the fifth time, and wrote for a weekly earning lots of money.

The procedure for execution in Japan is opaque and carried out in secret.

Executions are performed not at prisons, but at detention centers. Those on death row are never sent to prison, but remain in the detention center until an appeal is won or their execution is carried out.

The method used is hanging, a procedure which has been abandoned in many places because it can result in beheading.

The family of the victims of Takuma expressed relief of the news of his death. Masako Totsuka, who lost her six-year-old son, is quoted in local newspapers as saying, ”it’s quite common for condemned criminals to atone for their crimes with death and that has happened. So I believe I can move ahead at last.”

But activists paint a different picture. They say the situation has raised the urgency of a clear debate on dealing with crime, not through punishment, but by encouraging a link between victims and perpetrators.

Masaru Harada, the brother of Akio Harada, who was murdered in December 2001 by a friend who wanted his insurance policy, is a rare victim who agrees with activists.

Akio Harada’s murderer was executed two years later.

In a book titled ‘He Who Killed my Brother and Me’ Masaru Harada recalls how he was shocked and wanted revenge at the beginning when his brother was killed, but later on realised how the execution was not the solution.

”Your pain does not go away by killing the murderer,” he said. ”I am against the death penalty for this reason.”

But Masaru Harada said his reasoning has not earned him much sympathy. ”People tell me victims must behave like victims, which means keep silent and let the government deal with murderers,” he explained.

Activists say this attitude represents the lack of individual philosophy in dealing with crime and illustrates how the well being of society takes priority over everything else.

”Against this social backdrop, what is needed is a careful programme for victims and perpetrators. After all, both are victims in Japanese society where victims are also made to feel responsible for allowing their family members to be embroiled in crimes, such as in the case of Akio Harada,” Forum Against the Death Penalty’s Takada pointed out.

In a bid to stem the growing clamp down against criminals, lawyers have now launched a programme to help support both family members of victims and criminals.

”Raising awareness is imperative. We, activists, cannot lose hope,” added Takada.