Three death row inmates filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government on Tuesday, arguing that the executions are cruel and should be abolished, their lawyer said.
Japan is one of the few economically developed countries that still has the death penalty, and hanging has been the only method of execution for nearly a century and a half.
Lawyer Kyoji Mizutani told AFP that the three, whose identities have not been revealed at the Osaka detention center, are “seeking an injunction” against the executions.
They are also seeking 33 million yen ($238,000) in compensation, they said, for the psychological distress they have suffered since being sentenced to death in 2000.
A legal victory would force a surprise shake-up of execution laws in Japan, where public support for capital punishment remains high despite international criticism.
More than 100 people are on death row, including many serial killers.
The execution is usually carried out long after the sentence has been carried out, with prisoners held in solitary confinement for years and told of their impending death only hours before.
When their time comes, the blindfolded convicts are led away in handcuffs before their feet are tied and a net is opened beneath them.
The system is triggered in an adjacent room where several officers simultaneously press a button, no one being told which one is “live”.
Two inmates filed a separate lawsuit last year against the late notice system, arguing that it causes psychological pain.
Mizutani called for more “open discussion” around the death penalty in Japan, which is often treated in secret.
In July, the nation executed a man convicted of killing seven people in a 2008 truck crash and stabbing in Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district.
Three more prisoners were executed in December 2021 – the first executions after a gap of two years and the first ordered by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration.
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