Amnesty International Report 2004 - Japan

Covering events from January - December 2003

A man reportedly suffering from a mental health condition was executed. An 86-year-old prisoner died after spending more than 36 years on death row. More than 55 prisoners had their death sentences confirmed by the Supreme Court and were at risk of execution. Reports of ill-treatment in prisons continued to be received. There were reports that prisoners were held in isolation for prolonged periods.

Background

The 9 November election saw Prime Minister Koizumi re-elected.

Peru formally requested the extradition of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori in connection with the murder of 15 people in 1991 at Barrios Altos, Lima, and the "disappearance" and murder of nine students and a university professor in Lima in 1992. The Japanese Foreign Ministry stated that Alberto Fujimori, in exile in Japan since 2000, is a Japanese citizen and so his extradition was prohibited under the Extradition Law, raising criticism that Japan was complicit in Alberto Fujimori's impunity.

Japan warned North Korea it could not expect substantial Japanese aid until the sensitive issue involving the alleged abduction of several hundred Japanese citizens by North Korean secret agents in the 1970s and 1980s was resolved. During a visit by Prime Minister Koizumi to Pyongyang in 2002, North Korea admitted to abducting 13 Japanese nationals.

A bill to extend the term of a special "anti-terrorism" law was passed in October.

Death penalty

One man was known to have been executed. Many prisoners under sentence of death spent years on death row, in solitary confinement for prolonged periods. Execution is by hanging and is carried out in secret and with little notification to prisoners and none to their families.

• Shinji Mukai was executed by hanging in Osaka detention centre in September. He was informed of his impending execution just a few hours before it was carried out; his family and lawyer received no warning. He was reportedly suffering from mental health problems and his lawyer was preparing an appeal for retrial at the time of the execution.

• In September, Tomiyama Tsuneki, an 86-year-old prisoner under sentence of death, died of kidney failure after spending 39 years in detention, 36 of them on death row.

In July, nine Diet members were allowed to tour an execution chamber. The last time any Diet members were given permission to visit such a facility was reportedly in 1973.

Asylum-seekers

Asylum determination procedures were subject to long delays. The authorities continued to forcibly return asylum-seekers to countries where they could be at risk of human rights violations. Many repatriations were carried out in secret. Reports of ill-treatment of asylum-seekers continued to be received. On 17 October there was a joint declaration by the Immigration Bureau of the Ministry of Justice, the Immigration Office of the Tokyo Metropolitan government and the Metropolitan Police department to strengthen measures against illegal migrants in Tokyo by calling for speedier deportation procedures.

• A 31-year-old Pakistani woman whose application for refugee status was refused by the Immigration Bureau was deported to Pakistan in October. The deportation came as lawyers were preparing to appeal against the decision. She had been detained since June 2002. While in detention she was separated from her two children, who were reportedly placed in a children's institution; they were also deported to Pakistan.

In March the Cabinet approved a bill proposing to abolish the 60-day deadline for applicants to file for refugee status. The bill was presented to the Diet but was abandoned when parliament was dissolved in October. There was concern that the bill did not give adequate protection to asylum-seekers.

Torture and ill-treatment

Reports of torture and ill-treatment in custody continued to be received. In March it was reported that over half of the 91 complaints that the Japan Federation of Bar Associations received during special consultations on prisons were about violence and cruelty by warders. The Federation reported that warders assaulted inmates in almost all prisons across the country.

A Prison Reform Committee was established on 31 March to consider reforms of prison conditions and the creation of a prison conditions monitoring body, and to look into health care and transparency in prisons. AI was invited to brief the Committee whose recommendations were issued in December.

• In February a deputy chief guard at Nagoya Prison was accused of fatally assaulting an inmate with a fire hose in December 2001. The guard reportedly aimed water from the hose at the 43-year-old inmate's bare buttocks as punishment for dirtying his cell. As a result, the inmate suffered serious injuries and died of an infection the next afternoon. Nagoya Prison initially reported to the Ministry of Justice that the man had inflicted the injuries on himself and died from peritonitis.

The Ministry of Justice stated in May that it would stop the use of leather restraining devices, and by 1 October they were no longer being used. In previous years the use of leather restraining devices, which can be tightened around a prisoner's abdomen and cause internal injury, had resulted in the deaths of prisoners in Nagoya Prison.

Torture and ill-treatment during pre-trial detention continued to be reported. In a system where convictions are heavily dependent on confessions, there was concern that many confessions were extracted during long interrogations often without a lawyer present. Suspects who did not understand Japanese were denied adequate interpretation facilities and were forced to sign transcripts of their interrogation in Japanese without translation.

Violence against women

In April the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed by a group of South Korean "comfort women" demanding compensation from the Japanese government for being forced to provide sex for Japanese troops during World War II. The Court upheld the decision of the Hiroshima High Court in March 2001, which overturned a lower-court ruling ordering the Japanese government to pay compensation to some of the women.

A Cabinet Office report released in April revealed that one in five Japanese women suffered physical or mental violence from their partners and that victims wanted police and other public bodies to take a more active role in combating the abuse.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed concern that the "Law for the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims currently does not cover forms of violence other than physical violence" and that the penalty for rape was relatively lenient. The Committee also recommended that Japan increase efforts to combat trafficking in women and girls.

AI country visits

An AI delegation visited Japan in November.