JAPAN: Broadcasters Break Hanging Secrecy Taboos

By Catherine Makino

TOKYO, May 12 (IPS) - The final seconds in the life of a Japanese death row inmate -- the rasping muffled last words, the trapdoor springing open, the whip of a noose and a Buddhist gong signalling the end -- has made radio history here, waking listeners up to what goes on in one of the most secretive execution systems in the world.

In a breakfast radio programme on May 6, Tokyo’s NCB (Nippon Cultural Broadcasting) audience heard the sounds captured by a hidden microphone in a death chamber as an unknown inmate fell 10 feet to his death beneath the Osaka prison gallows 53 years ago.

The recording, made specifically to train Japan’s future executioners, was apparently smuggled out of prison and handed to NCB by campaigners against the Japanese capital punishment. It formed part of a one-hour documentary on how Japan’s 106 death row inmates could expect to go to their deaths as the country speeds up the tempo of its executions.

For the full report, visit http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42323.