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EU Delegation to host symposium and exhibition on the death penalty in Japan

EU News 422/2013

3 October 2013

The Delegation of the European Union to Japan will organise a symposium and exhibition to mark the World and European Day against the Death Penalty on 10 October. The two events will focus on the Nagayama Case and aim to encourage more debate about capital punishment in Japan. They also mark the launch of a new initiative by the EU, its 28 Member States and Norway and Switzerland, titled 'Europe against the death penalty – Join the discussion'.

The EU is aware that the death penalty is an emotive and difficult issue. At the same time, it is against capital punishment in all forms and under all circumstances. It violates human dignity, and we believe it is cruel and inhumane. The EU and Japan share many common values, but unfortunately, we disagree on the death penalty. The EU wishes to encourage more constructive debate on this divisive issue in Japan, in the hope that Japan will move toward a moratorium, pending abolition.

The symposium marks the official opening of an exhibition that features personal items of Norio Nagayama, who was executed in 1997 for fatally shooting four people in 1969 as well as several panels explaining his case. Panelists include Akira Kitani, a former judge at the Tokyo High Court, Kyoko Otani, a lawyer who was personally involved in the Nagayama Case, and Michie Ichihara, the executor of Nagayama's will. The exhibition itself will be open at the EU Delegation in Tokyo's Minato Ward until 17 October, after which it will move to Hitotsubashi University.

 

Details of the symposium are as follows:
Date:               Thursday, 10 October, 2013
Time:               13:30-15:30
Place:               Europa House, Delegation of the European Union to Japan
(4-6-28 Minami-Azubu, Minato-ku)
Language:       Japanese/English simultaneous interpretation

 

For more information, please contact:

Mari Koseki                Tel: 03-5422-6034 Mari.Koseki@eeas.europa.eu
Miwako Suetsune       Tel: 03-5422-6035 / Miwako.Suetsune@eeas.europa.eu
Digital Media:
Vicente J. Luna      Tel: 03-5422-6038 / Vicente.Luna-Ganuza@eeas.europa.eu