Death Penalty in Japan: Why Does Japan with the Lowest Homicide Rate Continue to Kill People in its Criminal Justice System?

• In Event: Dilemmas in Punishment: Global Perspectives

Abstract

The number of offenders arrested by the police has been generally decreasing since the 1960s in Japan. The number of homicides reported in Japan has constantly decreased since 1955, and the five years from 2009 to 2013 constituted a period of reduction to an all-time low of 939 in 2013, while the clearance rate in 2012 remained stable and high, at 93.5%. According to the Global Study on[ Homicide 2013 (UN Office on Drugs and Crime), the Japanese homicide rate in 2011 was around 0.3 per 100,000 population – which was lower than in nearly any other advanced democracy.
Nevertheless Japan retains the death penalty and has continued to execute people. In the paper, I will explore the reasons why Japan, country needs the death penalty for the least, has not able to abolish the death penalty.

Author

• Koichi Hamai, Ryukoku University, Japan