Japan: Hanging by a thread: Mental health and the death penalty in Japan

Index AI : ASA 22/005/2009
Date de publication : 10 septembre 2009
Catégorie(s) : Japon

The use of the death penalty is in decline globally. Japan is one of the few industrialized countries to continue to use it, hanging a small number of prisoners each year. This report discusses the legal basis for exempting mentally ill prisoners from the death penalty and documents the situation faced by such prisoners on death row in Japan. It calls on the authorities to ensure that mentally ill prisoners are not executed and to implement a moratorium on the death penalty.