Two prisoners sentenced to death in Japan have appealed against the country’s policy of giving only two hours’ notice before executions are carried out.
Japan gives prisoners on death row only one or two hours’ notice of their hanging, a policy that authorities say safeguards the victim’s “emotional stability.”
The case, brought by two anonymous death row prisoners in Osaka district court, contains harrowing testimony.
“When the prison officer opens the door of the prisoner’s room and announces the execution, the prisoner is immediately detained and taken to the place of execution,” the case quotes death row prisoner Hiroshi Sakaguchi as writing to lawyers. “The prisoner is tied up, handcuffed, and taken to the execution table in the same clothes, where he is hanged with a noose. … We, the condemned, are not allowed to object to the execution.”
Other testimony takes the form of an audio tape recorded in 1955, which shows the final hours of an unnamed prisoner at a time when notice periods were longer. In the tape, the man receives three days’ notice of his upcoming execution and spends the time making affectionate farewells to inmates and his visiting sister, who sobs. The tape includes sound of the man being hanged as Buddhist priests chant sutras.
Japan now has tightened the notice period to one to two hours, giving prisoners insufficient time to contact anyone outside the prison or even to reflect on their upcoming death.
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Man injures 3 junior high school children with bamboo sword
Japan Today – Oct 20
Police in Hidaka, Saitama Prefecture, have arrested a 37-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of assault and trespassing after he entered the grounds of a junior high school and injured three students with a bamboo sword.

Japan’s Empress Emerita Michiko turns 88
NHK – Oct 20
Japan’s Empress Emerita Michiko turned 88 on Thursday.
The Empress Emerita moved in April from a temporary dwelling to her current residence in the Akasaka Estate in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, where she lived when she was Crown Princess.

The Dark Side Of “Unification Church” in Japan
Japanese Comedian Meshida – Oct 17
After the assassination, it was revealed many conservative politicians have a connection to the Unification Church and it has become a big problem. So today I’ll talk about the Unification Church and the politicians who are related to the Unification Church.

Why Japan’s porn industry may go away soon
Nobita from Japan – Oct 14
In 2016 around, media picked up an incident that a woman was tricked into porn which drew people’s attention a lot as a serious social issue of Japan.
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