PRESS CONFERENCE
Yuichi Kaido, President, Center for Prisoners' Rights
Yuji Ogawara, Chief Secretary, The Central Board on Abolition of the Death Penalty and Reform of the Relevant Penal System of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations
Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, Executive Director, Together Against the Death Penalty

14:00-15:00 Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Language: The speech and Q & A will be in English and Japanese with English interpretation.

Is It Time to Abolish Japan's Death Penalty?

Japan is seeing an unprecedented social debate over its use of capital punishment. One trigger was the acquittal last year of Iwao Hakamada, a boxer who was sentenced to death in 1968 for murder and spent nearly half a century on death row before a court ruled that evidence in his case had been fabricated. His acquittal highlighted just how close Japan had come to ending the life of an innocent man.

The case spurred public calls to reconsider Japan's use of capital punishment altogether. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations set up an expert panel of politicians, prosecutors and senior police to look into the problems associated with the death penalty. The panel has recommended setting up an official body under the Diet "to fundamentally reexamine the death penalty system." But with opinion polls showing a majority of the public still supports the country’s ultimate sanction, the government has not acted on this proposal. Meanwhile, Japan conducted its first execution in nearly three years in June by hanging Takahiro Shiraishi, who was convicted of murdering nine people after luring them to his apartment using social media. Shiraishi's hanging was carried out after he withdrew an appeal by his lawyers.

Ahead of the 5th Regional Congress on the Death Penalty, which will be held in Tokyo from November 7 to 9, three speakers with deep experience in this highly contentious issue have agreed to come to the FCCJ and make the case for abolition. They include Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, Executive Director of the French Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort or "Together Against the Death Penalty"; Yuichi Kaido, president of the Center for Prisoners’ Rights; and Yuji Ogawara, Secretary-General of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations' Death Penalty Committee.

Please come to hear top experts explain one of the most important and thorniest issues in modern Japan.

How to attend: 
Please register by emailing front@fccj.or.jp with your name and the name of your media outlet. FCCJ members should also include their membership number. Doors will open 15 minutes before the event.

How to watch online: https://www.youtube.com/c/FCCJchannel/live  

How to ask questions: https://forms.gle/67tt7DtycxyFAdmu7    　

TV crew: Please make a reservation at front@fccj.or.jp. Doors open for TV crews only at 30 minutes before the event. FCCJ will limit live-streaming of FCCJ-hosted press conferences to Club members only. Non-members will no longer be permitted to live-stream these events. However, non-members may still film for reporting purposes and use footage after the press conference.

Professional Activities Committee