Asia-Pacific, Civil Society, Crime & Justice, Headlines, Human Rights, Press Freedom

RIGHTS-JAPAN: Broadcasters Break Hanging Secrecy Taboos

Catherine Makino

TOKYO, May 11 2008 (IPS) - The final seconds in the life of a Japanese death row inmate – the rasping muffled last words, the trapdoor springing open, the whip of a noose and a Buddhist gong signalling the end – has made radio history here, waking listeners up to what goes on in one of the most secretive execution systems in the world.

In a breakfast radio programme on May 6, Tokyo’s NCB (Nippon Cultural Broadcasting) audience heard the sounds captured by a hidden microphone in a death chamber as an unknown inmate fell 10 feet to his death beneath the Osaka prison gallows 53 years ago.

The recording, made specifically to train Japan’s future executioners, was apparently smuggled out of prison and handed to NCB by campaigners against the Japanese capital punishment. It formed part of a one-hour documentary on how Japan’s 106 death row inmates could expect to go to their deaths as the country speeds up the tempo of its executions.

"The idea is to have a clean death. The condemned aren’t supposed to struggle or flop around," one veteran guard said, hinting how the inmate’s feet and hands are bound up before the final fall to the recording of Buddhist monks chanting in the background.

In a separate command room, three to five executioners simultaneously press buttons to activate the gallows trapdoor. The system is designed to relieve anyone of feeling guilty that it was his button that caused the death.

The training tape included eavesdropping on a conversation between the condemned man and a family member the day before his execution. "I’m sorry for what I have done," he says, his voice cracking with emotion.

First estimates were that some 100,000 people listened to the early morning broadcast. Within hours, scores had called in or sent emails to the station to express their views, 60 percent of which were positive, NCB staff told IPS. "I wept when I heard the voice of the man about to be hanged. Now I understand what these people feel," one listener told the station.

A university lecturer called in to invite the entire production team to speak to his students. "This is a huge opportunity for them to discuss the death penalty issues as Japan stands on the verge of introducing a jury system for capital cases," he told the station.

But critics accused the programme-makers of being one-sided and keeping the listeners in the dark about the crime of the executed inmate. Elsewhere, listeners seemed to welcome the new light that was being cast on Japan’s secretive death row system.

"It was shocking in its detail," Hiro Kawaguchi, 26, a financial services worker, told IPS shortly after the broadcast. "I learned they build death chambers of washable material and deck them out with non-stainable, plastic curtains so they can hose everything down after an execution. It’s unthinkable that they could treat other human beings with such cold logic."

"It was certainly interesting to listen to such a rare programme like this on the death penalty," Toshie Komatsu, a businesswoman, told IPS. "But the broadcast didn’t discuss the victims’ feelings, so I am still undecided on the issue." Kanae Doe of Human Rights Watch Japan, praised the programme’s producers, saying she hoped their documentary would stimulate debate on capital punishment and help bring about abolition.

Andrew Horvat, a well-know academic and former representative of the Asia Foundation, said that he hoped for more than just the sounds from a hanging but also the pictures.

"I think every person who is in favour of the death penalty should be forced to witness all executions carried out by the state," he told IPS.

Looking ahead to next year when jury trials will be introduced for capital offences, he said: "All jurors who vote to send someone to his death must be there for the send-off. To do otherwise is to fail to take responsibility."

Katsuhiko Shimizu, director of the NCB programme, refused to say how the death row tape came into his station’s possession. He admitted the government’s public prosecutor had tried to block the broadcast.

But after the station insisted it was in the public interest to air the tape, official complaints were dropped. All names and anything that could lead to anyone being identified in the tape were edited out by the station before it was made public. "There isn’t any transparency about the death penalty. Japanese listeners have no idea or knowledge about it … because of the secrecy. That’s why we want to inform them," Shimizu told IPS.

"Inmates are informed of their execution only in the morning of the day they are to be hanged. Their families only find out about the execution when they are told to collect the bodies," he added.

According to the latest public opinion poll, more than 80 percent of Japanese support the death penalty.

So far this year, there have been seven executions, including four in one day last month.