Japan needs to decide which side it wants to be on in the future - grouped with countries like North Korea and Iran, or join the majority of the world that say the death penalty is outdated.

Japan needs to decide which side it wants to be on in the future

It already has. Asia loves the death penalty.

A bit extreme isn't it? Of all the countries to choose, Iran and North Korea? It makes for sensationalism or guilt tripping at best.

Facts are, unfortunately, that only 53% of the world (counting countries, not populations) have abolished the death penalty. A majority, sure, but the way this is presented you'd think it's much higher and that countries doing it are primitive. To be fair, only 18% use it "regularly". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_capital_punishment_by_country

If you were going strictly by number of people in those countries, then the vast majority of the world still DO practice the death penalty.

(Members include China, India, the USA- these three alone make up over 50% of the world's population) http://www.factfish.com/statistic/population,%20total/pie-chart

My point is not to support one way or the other, but rather to advise a grain of salt when hearing statements like this and thinking that Japan is some kind of backwards extreme case.

They cherry picked the countries using the death penalty.

I guess,

Japan needs to decide which side it wants to be on in the future - grouped with countries like America and Taiwan, or join the majority of the world that say the death penalty is outdated.

Doesn't sound nearly as bad.

Correction;

I made a mistake on the pie chart; USA+CHINA+INDIA is not 50% of the world's population, but closer to like 40%.

Sorry!

There's nothing worse than this 'wrong side of history' trite. It's the appeal to novelty fallacy, not a valid argument. The death penalty is "outdated"? Do small minded people like this have any idea how many ideas, concepts, and institutions that sort of fallacious argument can be applied to?

Meanwhile, back on earth....

'Japan needs to decide which side it wants to be on in the future - grouped with countries like America and Taiwan, or join the majority of the world that say the death penalty is outdated.

Doesn't sound nearly as bad.'

Here are the top ten countries for executions from 2007 to 2013 according to Amnesty International:

China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, USA, Yemen, North Korea, Somalia. Sudan and Japan.

Taking a look at that list, it's quite the company Japan is keeping. I don't know about you but I think that neighbourhood looks bloody awful.

I don't know about you but I think that neighbourhood looks bloody awful.

Right, because Japan's 3 executions in 2014 are directly comparable to the 60 in Iraq, the 90 in Saudi Arabia or the 1000 in China. Lol

More realistically, Belarus also had 3 in 2014. Singapore had 2, as did Palestine.

On the other hand, Russia has banned the death penalty despite politically sanctioned assassination remaining on the menu.

What does it all mean? Nothing. Offing a few serial killers once in a while doesn't make a country a global pariah. In fact, the banning of such practices while supporting massive foreign arms sales (a favorite practice of the so-called enlightened countries) really means the whole issue is a joke. Pointing fingers at a Japan for keeping the death penalty, even though at present it self-restricts global arms sales is the hight of hypocrisy.

KaynideApr. 15, 2015 - 09:00AM JST Correction; I made a mistake on the pie chart; USA+CHINA+INDIA is not 50% of the world's population, but closer to like 40%. Sorry!

The entire US doesn't practice the death penalty, in fact 19 states have outlawed it, and in another 10 states there hasn't been a single execution in more than a decade.

So perhaps another correction is in order?

Undecided about the death penalty, however, there is nothing like a blow-in foreign shill to upset the locals. My advice to Jan Wetzel would be to chill out a little and enjoy the excellent duty-free shopping experiences as she leaves the country.

@frungy

Not really, my point wasnt so much about the numbers as it was about the cherry picking of names to compare Japan to N Korea instead of, say The USA.

The thing that gets me about this quote is that it's used all the time except with "Japan" replaced with "the United States". It really exposes the intellectual dishonesty involved in cherry-picking countries that use the death penalty like this