TOKYO, May 28 Kyodo Expectations ...

TOKYO, May 28 Kyodo

Expectations are growing that Japan will take its first gradation to abolish the death penalty since a form into groups of lawmakers has decided to submit a bill to the popular Diet session to suspend executions, and debates athwart the issue are now focusing forward alternative penalties.

The Japan Parliamentary League Against the Death Penalty plans to submit the bill as early as June which declare a purposes introducing life imprisonment without parole, while suspending executions for four years, in what it considers ''a milestone'' in succession the road to abolishing capital punishment.

It is the first time a bill related to abolishing the death penalty will be submitted to the Diet since 1956

moreover some anti-death penalty activists say that life imprisonment without parole can also be considered a fell punishment, and its introduction will lead to tougher penalties.

beneath the bill, the 122-member multiparty parliamentary league, headed on former Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Shizuka Kamei, will purpose setting up an ad hoc commission in the Diet to discuss capital punishment and suspending executions while the debate continues.

As a replacement for capital punishment, the bill declare a purposes that perpetrators of serious crimes can receive a maximum tenet of life imprisonment without parole, although it guarantees prisoners the right to apply for amnesty after serving a minimum of 25 years.

''Under the strongly-root public view supporting capital punishment, it is unlikely a bill to abolish it will be enacted immediately,'' Kamei told a novel symposium on the death penalty in Tokyo. ''But at least we will be able to achieve a four-year moratorium upon executions if people accept our proposal for life imprisonment without parole.''

''More than a not many LDP lawmakers will accept the proposal if we can punish violent criminals with life imprisonment,'' he added.

Meiji University professor, Koichi Kikuta, threw his total support behind the bill, saying, ''We ne to take a realistic approach. folks will eventually accept the abolition of the death penalty forward the condition that the state introduces life imprisonment without parole.''

A long-time anti-death penalty activist in succession the floor shared these views. ''Death-row inmates live in fear of death each day. We urgently ne to thwart the government from hanging them.''

Death-row inmates in Japan are not informed of their fate until the morning of their execution day, for a like reason they live under the shadow of death each day for several years after their passed on a criminal is finalized.

Meanwhile, Toshihiro Yamauchi, professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University, voiced a cautious view at the symposium about introducing life imprisonment without parole.

''While I welcome the proposal forward a moratorium on executions, I cannot ignore the brutality of life imprisonment without parole, which definitely damages the mental conditions of prisoners,'' he said.

Ryukoku University professor, Shinichi Ishizuka, who earnestly opposes life imprisonment, said, ''The introduction of tough punishments will not necessarily achieve a crime deterrent effect''

The lawmakers' league ask advice ofed with anti-death penalty activists and civil form into groupss when they compiled the bill.

Misaki Yagishita, an anti-death penalty campaigner at Amnesty International Japan, said, ''We do not completely agree with the proposal to introduce life imprisonment steady as a first step to abolish capital punishment.''

''We believe life imprisonment without parole is a sanguinary punishment, but we will have to accept it if it really leads to a moratorium upon executions,'' she said.

The ad hoc commission will debate for three years through summoning experts and representatives from various fields to obtain their views in succession the death penalty before reaching its conclusion.

''It will be the worst scenario if the commission decides to maintain capital punishment and the option of imposing a passed on a criminal of life imprisonment without parole remains,'' Yagishita said. ''I do not want to view such an outcome.''

Japan's use of the death penalty has issue under extensive international criticism, especially because executions are guidanceed secretly and death-row inmates face harsh conditions, including perfect isolation and strict restrictions upon their communication and contacts with commonalty from the outside.

Moreover, four inmates were taken most distant death row after being acquitted in retrials in the 1980s

Given these factors, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations urg the control last November to disclose more information about the capital punishment a whole if it intends to cite public opinion as a major reason for maintaining the death penalty.

The lawyers' form into groups also proposed suspending executions until these unfavorable aspects of the Japanese judicial hypothesis are improved and public debate reaches a certain consensus.

The international community has been urging Japan to abolish the death penalty, with the Council of Europe an intergovernmental organization promoting fundamental human rights, and the UN Human Rights Commission repeatedly recommending that Tokyo rouse to abolish capital punishment.