Japan death row inmates near 100 amid crime fears

By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) - Death row inmate Yoshio Fujinami had hoped his execution would be the last carried out in Japan.

"If the death penalty is carried out as retribution, the path to rehabilitation will be closed after one mistake," wrote Fujinami, convicted of killing relatives of his ex-wife in 1981.

On Christmas Day, the 75-year-old Fujinami and three other convicted killers were hanged.

With nearly 100 inmates now on death row -- almost twice the figure of a decade ago -- and courts imposing a growing number of death sentences, his final wish seems unlikely to be fulfilled.

A public perception that violence is rising, an increasingly vocal victims' rights movement and intense media coverage of horrific crimes are pushing courts to hand down stiffer penalties -- including more death sentences, experts and activists say.

"I think people are being swept away by an emotional feeling of revenge," lawmaker Shizuka Kamei, who heads a group of parliamentarians opposed to the death penalty, told Reuters.

The mood contrasts with the European Union, where the death penalty is banned and calls for a global moratorium mounted after footage surfaced showing Saddam Hussein being taunted moments before he was hanged.

In the United States, which along with Japan is one of the few advanced democracies to execute criminals, death sentences fell to a 30-year low in 2006 and capital punishment is now under what appears to be an unprecedented review amid eroding support.

Yet in Japan, where executions are shrouded in secrecy, debate on the death penalty is muted.

"Japan probably has the most secretive administration of capital punishment in the world," said David Johnson, a sociology professor at the University of Hawaii. "One effect is to make it less salient in the public consciousness."

Neither inmates nor their families are given advance warning of executions. Only prison officials and a priest are present, and the Justice Ministry announces hangings only after they have taken place. No details are released by authorities, although human rights activists publish names obtained from relatives.

Activists published Fujinami's letter after he was hanged.

DEATH ROW

The silence surrounding executions contrasts sharply with media coverage of crimes, which has intensified in recent years along with growing public angst about deteriorating safety.

Such fears grew after doomsday cult Aum's Shinri Kyo's 1995 gas attack on Tokyo subways.