Japan executes inmates

Three death-row inmates were executed by hanging in Japan on Thursday, the first time a death sentence has been carried out in the country since July 2010.

"Today, three executions were carried out," Japan's Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa told reporters. "I have carried out my duty as a justice minister as stipulated by law," he said.

The men, who had all been convicted of multiple homicides, were reportedly hanged in three different prisons. One was convicted of ramming a car into a train station in 1999 before stabbing five people to death. The second killed two people in 2001 and the third killed three in 2002.

Japan did not execute anyone in 2011, the first year in nearly two decades the country had not carried out a single death sentence. It was also only the second time the Japan's governing left-leaning Democratic Party had implemented the death penalty since it came to power in September 2009.

Opinion polls suggest that capital punishment is generally supported in Japan which along with the United States is one of the few industrialized countries that still has capital punishment.

Some 132 people are currently on death row in Japan. All executions are carried out by hanging and inmates aren't told the date of their execution until the last minute.

ccp/mz (AP, AFP)