New Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa indicated he may issue execution orders as the number of death-row inmates has grown to a postwar high of around 130, but suggested that condemned Aum Shinrikyo members may not face the gallows anytime soon.
"It's a very hard duty, but I have to take responsibility (for authorizing executions)," Ogawa said Friday at his first news conference since assuming the post. "It isn't in line with the spirit of the law for the number of death-row inmates to continue increasing without executions."
No hangings were carried out in 2011, the first full year since 1992 in which no inmates were executed.
(Japan Times)
↧