http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGASA220062006
"The death penalty is certainly the grimmest of all punishments. The reason is simply that it involves the eternal deprivation of life, the source of dignified human existence". [Excerpt from a decision of the Japanese Supreme Court, 12 March 1948.] At least 87 prisoners currently remain on death row in Japan. The last execution took place on 16 September 2005, when Kitagawa Susumu was hanged for two murders committed in the 1980s. Since 2000, 11 prisoners have been executed. In their cases the appeal process took between 10 to 16 years. Other prisoners have, however, been on death row since the 1960s with their cases still under appeal."
