Japan remains one of the few developed countries where the death penalty is still practiced. According to polls, the overwhelming majority of the adult population consider the highest measure necessary and fully justified for the Land of the Rising Sun.
Sarin attack
On July 6, 2018, the head of the Japanese Ministry of Justice, Yoko Kamikawa, made an official statement that seven death sentences were carried out against the leaders of the extremist sect Aum Shinrikyo.
"The structure of the seven crimes is different, but they were all sentenced by the court to capital punishment and were hanged yesterday!" Kamikawa said.
According to her, "the first people and ministers of the spiritual emperor" (as the ambitious leaders of the sect called themselves) confessed to producing the poisonous gas sarin, which was used in the terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway.
The religious sect "Aum Shinrikyo", the name of which translates as "the teaching of the truth Aum", was founded in 1987 by Shoko Asahara.
The former seller of Chinese medicines Asahara (in the world - Chizuo Matsumoto) made a lot of efforts so that in a couple of years his brainchild would receive the status of a religious organization in Japan. The religion preached by the new-born guru was a cool mystical cocktail, consisting of elements of different beliefs - from Buddhism and Hinduism to Christianity, yoga, voodoo and the occult. The number of the sect reached 50 thousand people. Traveling around the world, including Russia, where he also had thousands of adepts, the bearded, long-haired, eloquent guru gathered numerous audiences and gave the impression of a harmless eccentric spreading an exotic cult. A good psychologist and skillful manipulator, he zombified crowds and attracted them to his sect. Asahara's popularity grew rapidly. He was praised by the rank and file of the sect,and the authorities of a number of countries turned a blind eye to the activities of the guru.
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But that all changed in March 1995, when cultists, on the orders of Asahara, carried out the most brutal terrorist act in the history of the country, spraying sarin gas in the Tokyo subway. The world was struck by the footage and photos of this tragedy.
The leader of the sect Asahara motivated the need for such an extremely brutal action by the fact that she, they say, would bring closer the final battle between Good and Evil. He declared himself the newly-minted Jesus Christ, the Messiah and the "benefactor of mankind." According to the order of this very "benefactor", his adherents, by their criminal actions, sent 13 people to the next world. At the same time, more than six thousand received poisoning of varying severity. Many were left disabled. It looks quite logical that in Russia and a number of other countries the sect was banned as a terrorist one.
A reasonable question arises: "Why did the Japanese death row prisoners spend so long in prison after they were sentenced?" It turned out that the lawyers of the sectarians repeatedly filed appeals, sought a reconsideration of the case, and repeatedly tried to present the ruthless criminals as mentally ill and insane, and therefore subject not to trial, but to treatment in mental hospitals, but Themis did not heed their arguments.
Among those executed, the sect leader himself is 63-year-old Asahara, the sect's "minister of war" and the right-hand man of the leader Kiyohide Hayakawa, the chemical scientist Tomomas Nakagawa, who was in charge of the construction of a sarin plant, who was involved in the development of poisonous gases. Active members of the sect Seiichi Endo, Yoshihiro Inoue, Tomomitsu Niimi and Masami Tsuchiya were also executed. The country's main police department ordered to strengthen security measures and tighten control over the remaining followers of extremists after the execution of its leaders.
Half an hour before the execution
Interestingly, the overwhelming majority of the Japanese approved of the execution of the sectarians. Independent opinion polls have shown that the Japanese society considers loyalty and humanism towards the worst violators of the law extremely harmful and aggravating the situation with crime. Supported by the tough actions of the authorities and numerous Japanese media. The meaning of the publications was reduced to the thesis: "The criminals got what they deserved!" In fairness, it should be noted that after the sarin attack and the arrest of many of the sect's leaders, it did not disappear at all, but continued to exist under a different name - "Aleph". This organization is still under the scrutiny of the special services of the respective countries.
As for statistics, only from 2000 to 2018 in Japan 157 people were sentenced to death (as a rule, these are serial killers, bloody maniacs, pathological sadists, less often - traitors to the Motherland).
In respect of 75, the sentence was carried out. On average, a suicide bomber waits for execution in the Land of the Rising Sun for about six years, after which an inevitable loop awaits him.
For many years, the official Japanese authorities carefully concealed everything related to the executions. They responded to requests from journalists with silence.
It wasn't until 2010 that the country's government allowed local journalists to go to death row for the first time. It is known that there are seven such prisons in the country, and their location is classified.
According to official statistics, the percentage of erroneous death sentences in the country is negligible. Over the past half century, it has only turned out once that the suicide bomber was sentenced unjustly. It turned out to be a certain citizen who by that time had spent 17 years on death row for the alleged murder of a 4-year-old girl. However, additional investigation revealed the real killer, and the long-term prisoner was freed.
The Japanese justify the long stay on death row by the fact that during the years of imprisonment, some new circumstances of the murder may emerge, and theoretically the sentenced person may turn out to be innocent.
What did the journalists see in the secret prison? First of all, they realized that the suicide bomber had to forget about the comfortable conditions. The cell in which he is located has an area of 10 square meters, of the furniture in it only a bed, a table and a stool, screwed tightly to the floor. A prisoner sentenced to death is strictly prohibited from watching TV, listening to the radio and using a computer. For the entire time of imprisonment, he is entitled to only three books (of his choice). Of the games, chess and the national game "Go" are allowed, but a convict plays without an opponent, that is, against himself.
A person sentenced to death manages to breathe fresh air three times a day for half an hour in the summer and twice - also for half an hour - in the winter.
He is given a daily shower and very modest food. The menu consists of the cheapest fish and rice. Alcohol and cigarettes are prohibited. But the suicide bomber has the right to work. For example, he can glue boxes or collect children's toys. The monthly earnings are approximately $ 50. He can spend them on the purchase of sweets or fruits.
The bomber is announced to be executed only half an hour before her. A Buddhist or Shinto priest comes to him (at the request of the prisoner). But Christian suicide bombers can only pray themselves at the wooden cross in a special room.
Three buttons
The method of execution in Japan is not original - it is hanging. The action takes place in a special room with a massive hook embedded in the ceiling. There is a special hatch in the floor just below it. The executioner throws a noose around the suicide bomber's neck and places him on the hatch. In the next room, three prison officers simultaneously press buttons, but the hatch cover is only triggered by one of the buttons. Moreover, none of the three executioners knows for sure which of them actually carried out the sentence. This is done for reasons of humanity so that the performer is not tormented by pangs of conscience. In addition to the salary for each execution procedure, the perpetrators receive a bonus of approximately three hundred dollars.
The offender, subjected to hanging, dies either from suffocation or from a fracture of the cervical vertebrae. Death is ascertained by a prison doctor. He also signs the final act on the execution of the sentence.
The relatives of the executed have the right to claim the body and bury it at their own discretion.
The death penalty as a punishment has traditions in Japan that go back to ancient times. In the samurai era, it was believed that guilt and shame could only be washed away with blood. In some cases, a certain nobility was shown in relation to the convicted person - he was given the right to carry out the seppuku procedure, that is, suicide by ripping open the abdomen with a special ritual sword. At the same time, the newly deceased was buried with appropriate honors. Perhaps this is why execution as the highest measure of social protection is still used in Japan today.
When human rights defenders in many countries condemn the Land of the Rising Sun for the executions practiced in the country, bombard government websites with angry messages, accuse it of unjustified cruelty and lack of humanity, officials lucidly explain to well-wishers: “We ourselves decide how to deal with malicious violators of the law, with murderers, maniacs and terrorists, dangerous to society, and our innocence is confirmed by the low crime rate in Japan! In addition, we must take into account our traditions, our moral standards and public opinion!"
Vladimir BARSOV