One down, three to go: defiant China executes multiple Japanese citizens

China has executed one Japanese national this week and plans to execute three more.

Mitsunobu Akano, 65, was executed on Tuesday for allegedly attempting to smuggle 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of narcotics from China to Japan. Akano is the first Japanese citizen to be executed by the Chinese since 1972, when diplomatic relations between China and Japan were finally re-established. 

Japanese Justice Minister Keiko Chiba has expressed concern that the case "could trigger a backlash from the Japanese public". 

Beijing appears indifferent and has informed Japan that it plans to execute three more Japanese drug smugglers, potentially before the week is out: Teruo Takeda, 67, from Nagoya city; Hironori Ukai, 48, from Gifu prefecture; and Katsuo Mori, 67, of Fukushima prefecture.

Japan still has the death penalty, however it is usually only adopted in cases involving multiple homicides. China, on the other hand, executes more people than the rest of world put together. 

Amnesty International has demanded that China publish official figures for executions in the wake of its report, Death Sentences and Executions in 2009, but China regards these statistics as state secrets. Amnesty decided not to include an estimate of those killed by China in their report, believing that such calculations “grossly under represent” the actual number the state has killed or sentenced to death.

Mitsunobu Akano was arrested in September 2006 at an airport in the north eastern city of Dalian whilst reportedly trying to smuggle 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of narcotics from China to Japan. Police also found another kilogram of drugs in the luggage of an unnamed accomplice, about whom no further information is to be found.

 Bearing in mind China’s track record, notably in relation to the case of British citizen Akmal Shaikh - who was executed in December 2009 in spite of clear evidence of mental illness- it is hard to believe that Akano was “treated legally during detention and trial”, as the Supreme People’s Court has insisted.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, speaking on Tuesday before receiving confirmation of the execution, said: "It is regrettable from the Japanese point of view, even if the legal systems are different. But there isn't much that Japan can do about this”. 

This doesn’t bode well for the three other Japanese nationals facing imminent execution.