UN calls for Japan to scrap death penalty slammed as foreign interference

A United Nations panel called Japan’s method of execution ‘cruel’, among other criticisms of its use of capital punishment

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Tokyo. The UN Human Rights Council report has been met with outrage in Japan. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 8:00am, 10 Dec 2024Updated: 8:07am, 10 Dec 2024

People in Japan are expressing their anger after a United Nations panel urged the country to stop imposing the death penalty for the most serious crimes, with many saying the UN should stop interfering in their domestic affairs.

The report, issued in late November by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR), came weeks after another UN committee also provoked public anger following its advice for Japan to change its laws to allow a woman to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne and serve as empress.

The UNHCR report raised concerns that Japan’s use of capital punishment might contravene international laws and criticised its long-established practice of informing death row inmates on the same day as their impending execution.

It also called Japan’s method of execution, hanging, “cruel, inhuman or degrading” and condemned the practice of only notifying family members after executions had been carried out.

The UNHCR report has been met with outrage in Japan, with many people seeing it as an unjustified intrusion by the international body.

“What gives the UN the right to demand such things of a sovereign government that is following its laws?” asked Hiromichi Moteki, a conservative historian.