Japan hangs two more on death row

Justice Minister Eisuke Mori announced on Tuesday that two death-row inmates have been executed, marking the first executions under the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso formed in late September and breaking a record high for the number of people executed per year.

According to the Justice Ministry, the two are Michitoshi Kuma, 70, who was at the Fukuoka detention center, and Masahiro Takashio, 55, at the Sendai detention center. They were the first executions since Sept. 11.

They bring the annual total of people executed by the government to 15, the most since 1999 when the government started publishing the number of people executed.The government has been executing inmates at a pace of once around every two months since the period of former Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama.

An execution of a death-row inmate requires authorization by the justice minister.

The debate over capital punishment has been rekindled in Japan recently, particularly following Justice Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s controversial remarks last year that executions should be carried out automatically without an order from the justice minister.

Underlining this aggressive stance, he ordered the hanging of six inmates between December and February, a period during which the U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution calling for a moratorium on capital punishment.

Executions have been increasing in Japan, with nine inmates hanged in 2007, compared with four in 2006, one in 2005, two in 2004, one in 2003, and two in 2002 and 2001.