The Foreign Service Journal, October 2003

Although an anti-death penalty movement is slowly growing in Japan, the Japanese rarely talk about capital punishment and apply it sparingly. Amnesty International reports that more than 100 inmates are on Japan’s death rows, while only two people were executed in 2002, both by hang- ing. Yet the government has stead- fastly resisted European and other entreaties to abandon the practice, even at the cost of losing observer status at the Council of Europe (a penalty the U.S. also faces). The Japanese court system is ponderous but thorough. So far the alleged master- mind of the 1995 murderous sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subways, Shoko Asahara, is far from having his case reach the sentencing phase. Outsiders often criti- cize as cruel the Japanese practice of not giving advance notice before the day of a prisoner’s execution: he never knows when his last hours may be at hand. Japanese friends told me that the practice meets a cultural desire to minimize anguish and expense for the family members of the executed. The Chinese carry out more than half of the world’s executions. In 2002, according to Amnesty International, China reported 1,060 executions, and sentenced 1,921 oth- ers to death. Most outside observers believe the actual figures to be much higher. China’s methods of execu- tion are firing squad and lethal injection. Those subject to capital punishment include not only drug dealers and perpetrators of violent crimes but also corrupt officials and even pimps. In June 2002, at least 150 people were executed across China as part of China’s “strike hard” campaign to mark the U.N.-designated International Anti-Drugs Day. F O C U S 46 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 3 Several capital cases with profound international implications are going forward right now in northern Virginia. T HE R EMINGTON