The Unexpected Impact of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s Investigation of the “Slush Fund Problem” on the “Execution of the Death Penalty

The investigation by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office into the Nikai faction, as well as the Abe faction, is having an “unexpected ripple effect,” according to a source.

The situation is complicated by the fact that Justice Minister Ryuji Koizumi, who belongs to the Nikai faction, left the faction but has not been replaced. The Justice Minister is in charge of directing and supervising prosecutors, and the fact that he was a member of the Nikai faction only a short time ago has led some to suggest that the neutrality of the investigation cannot be guaranteed. This is quite understandable,” said a reporter from the society section of a national newspaper.

However, the “complications” do not stop there.

The “complication” does not stop there, however. In fact, no executions have taken place since July 2010.

In November 2010, Yasuhiro Hanashi, then Minister of Justice, said, ‘The Minister of Justice stamps the seal of death penalty (execution). He was ousted from his post after making comments such as, “The Minister of Justice is a low profile position that only makes the headlines when he stamps the death penalty (execution). At the time of this gaffe, it was said that there would be no executions for a while, let alone this year.

The fact that there has been no execution as of the beginning of the new year probably means that the impact of the gaffe was so strong that it would take some time to dispel it. The period between the close of the extraordinary session of the Diet and the end of the year has been considered the “execution season,” although not as long as before.

Although it was only a year ago, many people must have forgotten about this gaffe, but it continues to have a significant impact on those involved and those who are concerned.

The Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office, which covers the Kanto Koshinetsu region and neighboring areas, is the second-highest-ranking prosecutor in the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office and, after the chief public prosecutor, has the second-highest responsibility for deciding investigations by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s Special Investigation Department.

The Justice Minister, who is in a position to direct and supervise the prosecutors, was until recently a member of the Nikai faction, which is the target of the prosecutors’ investigations, and while the Special Investigation Department is losing its footing, he orders only the death penalty for the Tokyo High Prosecutor General, who is in charge of the investigations of the prosecutors. …… That is a very complicated and awkward situation, I would say.

The fact that the legal and public prosecutors are cutting into politics on a large scale may have a significant impact on the death row inmates who spend the end of the year in “fear of execution.

The most recent execution was of a death row inmate for the indiscriminate killing of a man in Akihabara. At that time, the name of a person who had been sentenced to death for another case was also mentioned, but there is no doubt that the execution schedule was disrupted by the gaffe of the inmate, Hayashi.

(The same source) Normally, executions are scheduled on weekday mornings, except during the year-end and New Year’s holidays, which would mean that the execution would take place by December 29. If things continue as they are, this will be the first time since 2020 that there will be no executions.