Public support for executions is probably lower than polls suggest
is going out of style. More than 70% of countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. Among members of the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, America and Japan are the only ones that continue to execute criminals. President Joe Biden has promised toat the federal level and imposed a moratorium in June last year . Japan is going in the opposite direction. It had not executed anyone since 2019, an apparent signal that the practice could be phased out.
Japan’s leaders know that capital punishment marks their country as a global outlier. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has repeatedly criticised the practice. But Furukawa Yoshihisa, the current justice minister, has said that as long as “atrocious crimes” occur, the death penalty must be available. Officials also argue that execution should be maintained as a unique cultural practice catering to “public sentiment”.
But popular zeal for the death penalty may be less solid than it looks. Government surveys use leading questions that favour retention. For example, respondents are asked to choose whether executions are “permissible” or “must be abolished”, leaving little room to capture the views of agnostics.
Keeping things as they are is unlikely to anger the public. Even wrongful convictions leading to executions or long spells on death row have failed to stir widespread outrage. But the policy may cause diplomatic difficulties. Last year, it became a big hurdle asnegotiated an agreement to allow their armed forces to operate together more closely. The Australians worried that their soldiers stationed in Japan could be subject to the penalty . The signing of the deal was delayed as a result.
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