The myth of massive support for the death penalty in Japan

Tokyo 26 set (EFE) .- The majority support the death penalty in Japan, where the government supports to keep it, could not be so high among the Japanese, according to the findings of a new study on the theme.

The results obtained by a group of international researchers suggest that unconditional support as very different from the 80% reflected in the surveys conducted regularly by the government.

Entitled "The Myth of Public Opinion - Why Japan retains the death penalty," the study will be published in October in English and calls into question the veracity of these numbers.

The Japanese government conducts research to measure the degree of acceptance of the death penalty generally every five years since 1956, and considers the results as an empirical evidence that demonstrates the firmness with which Japanese society supports the measure.

Japan and the US are the only two industrialized and democratic countries that maintain the death penalty, despite the abolition being the majority trend in recent years - more than 160 countries extinguished the measure by law or in practice, according to the High Commission data from United Nations Human Rights.

The Japanese reluctance to abandon this practice was heavily criticized by organizations like Amnesty International, which he described as "cruel" the country's legislation, which stipulates, among other things, that the prisoners should remain incommunicado and receive the news of his few execution hours before it happens.

The last execution took place in Japan in June this year. Was the 12th since the arrival of conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to power in 2012. Currently, some 130 prisoners awaiting sentence in Japanese prisons.

The Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa, again defended the last run justifying the act based on the latest research results that revealed a new great support.

One of the authors of the study contrary to the government's position, the PhD in Criminology Mai Sato, told Efe that although it is true that in general terms the majority holds a favorable opinion to retain the death penalty, "behind this generality There is a minority really committed to preserve it. "

The teacher's side of Waseda University in Tokyo, Paul Bacon, she held between February and March this year a parallel survey very similar to that conducted by the Japanese government in November 2014, with the aim of analyzing the official search.

In both cases respondents were asked an opinion on the maintenance or abolition of the practice. In both cases about 80% of the population proved to be party to conserve it.

Despite the forcefulness of numbers, a detailed analysis shows another reality, since the nuances of responses denote a "passive support" and certain ignorance (only 51% knew that hanging is the method of execution that Japanese law states), according to researchers .

In the Government Research case it was identified that only 34% said they would not accept a future abolition, while in parallel survey the figure was 27%.

Forward to "reticent", 46% (in both calculations) indicated that the measure "should be maintained in the future", but expressed reservations to a possible change. In fact, 71% of respondents were willing to accept its extinction if the government initiated the relevant procedure.

"Research has shown that the death penalty is a distant issue for most Japanese and has little to do with everyday life. Moreover, it became clear that is not something that the thinking people stay too long," said Mai .

Why Japan then maintains the death penalty? May said that "prison is the option to which the Japanese resort to live in a society with low crime rate."