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Justice Minister Hatoyama issued a press release on Friday stating that three death-row inmates had had their sentences “finalized” that morning.

Of course, this is a euphemism. To have your sentence finalized means… well, that you get killed by the state, to put it bluntly. Now, my own feelings about the death penalty aside, even its most dedicated proponents could not support the way that it’s carried out in Japan.

First of all, the method itself is hanging. Not “drop you a long way and snap your neck and you’re unconscious within a second” hanging, but “leave you in unimaginable pain as you slowly suffocate over 15 minutes” hanging. Once in a while, when that doesn’t work out so well, it’s “cut you down and have the guard do some Judo choke holds on you” hanging. At least once, it has been a “better not let the family have the body back, there is too much evidence of a botched job” hanging.  Hangings were conducted in 10 countries in 2007: Bangladesh, Botswana, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Singapore, Sudan and Syria.  Japan is the only of these that is considered to be a developed country.

The real cruelty, however, does not lie in the method of execution, or in this final agonizing 15 minutes. It’s that for 7 or 8 years, prisoners are kept in death row, never informed of the date of their execution until the day itself. Every day, they must live in a half-alive, half-dead state, never knowing if the footsteps they hear coming down the hallway each morning will herald their final day to live. If the prison officials stop by their cell one morning, the final moments of life have arrived. If not, this only signifies a 24-hour extension of life — who knows what will happen tomorrow? This means that prisoners are never given a chance to say final goodbyes to family members, never a chance to put things in order. The Justice Ministry explains that this is to lessen mental anguish and torture to inmates, who might start having problems when they know that their execution date is approaching, but psychologists argue that not knowing is even worse.

Family members, as well, are only notified once the sentence has been carried out. In one tragic story, a mother came one morning for her weekly visit with her son on Death Row. She was told by prison officials that her son was busy, and that she should come back in the afternoon. When she came back, she was informed that her son had been executed that morning, and that she should collect the body.

Hangings are usually carried out on a Friday, to limit public discourse in the media, and are almost always carried out when Parliament is not in session, to prevent questioning and debate from opposition. Most surveys still do show that Japan is overwhelmingly supportive of capital punishment, but one wonders how that might change if the general public were more aware of the way that it’s carried out here…

Found this little gem on Japan Today:

CHIBA — Police on Wednesday arrested a man for making 512 false emergency calls to police in one day in December last year. Police believe the suspect has made more than 3,000 crank calls since last June.

Cool, I didn’t think that most Japanese folks were up to making crank calls; it is excellent to see someone revive this lost art. So, which was it? Was it “Is your takoyaki maker running? Well you’d better go catch it!”? Perhaps it was “Have you got Prince Akishino in a can? Well you’d better let him out!”. I hope it was my personal favourite: “‘Hello, is Hiroshi there?’ ‘Wrong Number [click]‘ ‘Hello, this is Hiroshi, any messages?’”.

I’m giddy with anticipation! Which timeless classic did our intrepid dialer use to confuse and amuse the police?

Mamoru Suzuki, 30, who is a part-time worker at a local agent for the Yomiuri newspaper in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, was charged with making 512 crank calls to police from 7 a.m. to 11:35 p.m. on Dec 2, shouting “Shut up” and then hanging up.

Ah yes, the old “Shut up!” gag. Pure comedy gold.

From Japan Today:

TOKYO — The average retail price of regular gasoline in Japan came to 154.30 yen per liter as of Monday, down 0.70 yen from two weeks earlier, the Oil Information Center said Wednesday.

So, nobody said a darned thing when gas shot up from the high 130s/low 140s to 155 a few weeks back, but when it dropped 3/4 of a yen, boy howdy is that good news!

I’m glad that my fuel economy is over 80 mpg…

From Japan Today:

TOKYO — A 16-year-old boy arrested Saturday after attacking five people and injuring two of them with kitchen knives on a Tokyo street has told police that he had “some relationship problems,” investigative sources said Sunday.

So let me get this straight. Buddy’s having trouble with his girl, so he decides to impress her by going on a stabbing spree. But here’s the thing. Even if she is actually the kind of girl who is impressed by a man on a stabbing spree (and if she is, he sure knows how to pick ‘em), the guy couldn’t even get it right! I mean, he only attacked 5 people, and only 2 were actually injured?

You know you’re a loser when you fail at going on a stabbing spree to impress your girl…

I was never a big supporter of the war in Iraq. The USA’s initial reasons for the war (the Weapons of Mass Destruction) seemed contrived, especially when they refused to share any of this supposed intelligence with the countries that they were trying to convince to join them in war. And they seemed hellbent to go to war no matter how many times Hussein said, “fine, I give up — come in and have a look around.”

That said, I always reluctantly accepted the war because I was able to convince myself that although I disagreed with the USA’s foreign policy, they were fundamentally more fair and humane than the Saddam Hussein and his regime in Iraq. Basically, I hoped that Iraq would probably be better off in the long run without him (not unlike Germany and Japan after WWII).

Those hopes were dashed last week as stories began to circulate about the torture that US and British troops were inflicting on their prisoners. Stripping the prisoners naked and tying hoods over their heads before beating them with stools and broomsticks. Pouring the acid from chemical lights on the prisoners. Sexually abusing them. Basically, exactly the same sorts of things that we used to hear about Saddam Hussein doing to his prisoners.

So what is this to tell us? Was Orwell right? Goulding? Given power, will anybody abuse it? Are people by nature vicious animals? Is fear of not being re-elected the only thing preventing the USA government from doing these things on its own soil to its own people? Is there any such thing as a civilized society?

In any case, my reluctant acceptance of the current state of affairs in Iraq is a thing of the past.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/03/0324_040324_catclones.html

If you’re too lazy to read the story, basically what it says is that some genetic lab has sold a cat-cloning service for $50000 (per cat) to 4 pet owners who wanted a cloned cat.

Something seems really wrong. How many cats are euthanized every single day because there aren’t enough people to adopt them, and not enough money to pay for them?

What if, rather than spending $50000 for a clone of your pet, you spent $200 to go down to the Humane Society and adopt one, and then donated the other $49,800 to keeping the other animals in the shelter alive a bit longer?