Japan executes three death-row inmates

Three men on death row in Japan were hanged today, the Justice Ministry announced, drawing criticism from Amnesty International which demanded that Tokyo move to abolish the death penalty.

The men were the first to be executed since four inmates were hanged in December and the second group since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in late September.

A Justice Ministry spokesman confirmed that three executions were carried out today, but refused to provide any further details.

Public broadcaster NHK identified the inmates as murder convicts Yoshikatsu Oda, 59, Masahiro Tanaka, 42 and Kosaku Nada, 56.

Amnesty International Japan protested about the executions and criticised the secrecy surrounding them.

Japan is one of handful of countries in the world, including China and the United States, still carrying out executions, it said.

“We hope Japan will discuss the death penalty from a human rights point of view and takes a step toward abolishing the death penalty, which is the ultimate form of human rights violation, in the near future,” the group said in a statement.

Until 1998, Japan refused to publicly acknowledge executions.