Death Penalty in Japan Project (2014-2016)

Funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Swiss Foreign Office, German Foreign Office, European Commission, Daiwa Foundation, Sasakawa Foundation.

Film

• The Wavering Public? The Death Penalty, Justice, and Public Opinion – Project and documentary led by Dr Mai Sato

Events

• World Congress Against The Death Penalty – Oslo, June 2016: Abolition Now – screening of The Wavering Public? The Death Penalty, Justice, and Public Opinion followed by a debate led by Dr Mai Sato
• Japanese Seminar Series 2016-17: Public Opinion Myth: Why Japan Retains the Death Penalty – seminar by Dr Mai Sato at Cardiff University, 9 February 2017
• The Public Opinion Myth: Why Japan retains the Death Penalty – event at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation in London, UK, 28 January 2016
• Film screening and public lecture at the University of Portsmouth, 23 March 2016

Media coverage

• Japan hangs first man convicted by jury as Tokyo claims death penalty is ‘popular’, The Telegraph, 18 December 2015 
• Public support for death penalty not overwhelming, researchers say, Japan Times, 16 September 2015
• Japan in breach of international standards, opinion wavering – study, World Coalition, 14 March 2013
• Hakamada Iwao and the Declining Support for Japan’s Death Penalty, The Diplomat, 21 February 2014
• Unpersuasive logic for death penalty in Japan, Japan Times, 29 March 2014
• Blur drummer on Japan’s continued use of the death penalty, GOV.UK, 20 January 2014

Policy Impact

Impact of the School of Law’s research – University of Reading (see entry for Mai Sato)

Award

Dr Mai Sato won the EMBARK award at the University of Reading’s Research Engagement and Impact Awards 2017 for her work into public attitudes towards the death penalty in Japan.