The New York Times

Friday, September 10, 1999

Japan Executes Three by Hanging

By The Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) -- Three death row inmates were hanged on Friday in Japan's first executions this year, a Justice Ministry spokesman said.

The spokesman refused to provide any other details.

Japanese media reports, however, quoted unidentified ministry sources as identifying the three as Masashi Sato, 62; Katsutoshi Takada, 61; and Tetsuyuki Morikawa, 69.

The reports said Takada was sentenced to death in 1992 for murdering a woman two years earlier. Sato reportedly murdered and sexual assaulted a 5-year-old girl in 1979. Morikawa was sentenced to death for stabbing a mother and child to death and robbing them of cash and jewellery in 1985.

The last execution conducted in Japan was on Nov. 19, 1998, when three people were put to death.

Capital punishment was suspended in Japan from the end of 1989 to March 1993. More than 30 people have been executed since then, according to Japan's Kyodo news service.