The Japanese government carried out no executions in 2023 for the first time in three years, local media reported.
Currently, there are 106 inmates on death row in Japan, after three died from illness and other causes, and three others had their death sentences finalized this year, Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun said, citing the Justice Ministry.
The law on inmate treatment stipulates that no executions will take place from Dec. 29 to Jan. 3, making any such act within the year impossible.
The last execution was on July 26, 2022, when Tomohiro Kato was hanged, who was convicted of murdering seven people by driving into them or stabbing them in a random attack in Tokyo’s Akihabara district in 2008.