Public Viewing of Japan’s Chamber of Death

For the first time since the end of World War II, Japan has allowed the public to see inside Japan’s chamber of death.  

Well, sort of.  On August 27, 20 Japanese journalists, no foreign media or NGOs allowed, boarded a close curtained bus and were taken inside the execution chamber housed at the Tokyo Detention Center for a brief 30 minute tour.  First, they were taken into the prayer room where a Buddhist altar stands and the condemned prisoner is read his last rites.  Then, they were taken into a small room with a statute of a Buddha where the warden officially orders the execution.  Then, they were taken into the death chamber, where two concentric red squares outline the trap door above which a handcuffed and blindfolded prisoner stands and a noose placed around his neck.  Three prison wardens each push a different button, one of which activates the trap door.  Journalists were not allowed to see the room below where the body falls.  Journalists were then taken into the antechamber where officials witness the hanging behind a small Buddhist altar.  Noticeably, the whole chamber smells of incense.

This tour was ordered by Justice Minister Keiko Chiba, a longtime anti-death penalty advocate after she signed death warrants for two prisoners and witnessed their executions in July.  Ms. Chiba is the first minister to attend an execution.  After the executions, she stated, “[w]itnessing the hanging with my own eyes made me think deeply about the death penalty” and stated she wants to spur a public debate over Japan’s death penalty practice.  The opening of the death chambers to the public was a first step and next month she plants to host a panel of experts to discuss the death penalty and whether it should be abolished.

Many anti-death penalty advocates hoped that the appointment of Ms. Chiba as the Justice Minister last September would mark a beginning of a moratorium and a sign that the new Democratic Party would support an abolition of the death penalty.  However, with 85% of the Japanese public in support of the death penalty according to a survey conducted by the Cabinet in February, Ms. Chiba succumbed to public pressure and signed an execution warrant for Kazuo Shinozawa and Hidenori Ogata in July.  This is grim news for the 107 prisoners on Japan’s death row.  Hopefully, the crusade for greater transparency on which Ms. Chiba is embarking will help turn the tide.