Japan executes murderer who battered a woman

TOKYO
Japan on Thursday executed  a man who robbed
and killed a woman after plotting the crime with
accomplices he met online,

The execution brings to 12 the total number of
death sentences carried out since Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe took power in 2012
Tsukasa Kanda 44 was hanged for killing 32 year
old Rie Lsogai in Nagoya,central Japan in 2007;

He met his two accomplices  via a mobile phone
based web service and the three of  them together
devised a plan to target a random woman victim.

The man kidnapped Isogai  from a Nagoya street
and suffocated  her  by wrapping her head and
neck with a plastic bag,adhesive tape and rope
before battering her head with a hammer,according
to Justice Ministry record,

This was an extremely brutal case that brought
unimaginable suffering to the victim and her family
,Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa told a press
briefing after the execution, the first since she
came to office in October last year,

"After a series  of careful reviews ,I ordered the
execution "she said'
Kanda did not appeal his death sentence after the
original district court ruling .

Japan and the United State are the only major advance
industrial nations that continue to have capital
punishment,
Surveys have shown the death penalty has overwhelming
public support despite repeated protests from European
governments and human rights groups,

International advocacy groups say Japan's system is
cruel because inmates can wait  for their executions
for many years in solitary confinement and are only told
of their impending death a few hours ahead of time,
AFP