This document consists of the text of a paper given by Dr Shigemitsu Dando at the Forum ’90 for the Ratification of the Convention on the Abolition of the Death Penalty, held at Hibiya Kokaido, Tokyo, 1 December 1990. It examines the death penalty in Japan and presents the case for abolition from a judicial perspective. Dr Dando, currently a professor emeritus at Tokyo University, was a Supreme Court Justice from 1974 to 1983. He is the first ever former Justice in Japan to petition the Ministry of Justice to abolish the death penalty.
