DEATH FROM AROUND THE GLOBE
Dateline: Japan

Japan gets on the board

The highlights:

Japan executed its first citizen in a year yesterday, the justice ministry said. The move, carried out when parliament was not in session, drew criticism from the human rights group Amnesty International.

In Japan, inmates and their immediate relatives are not informed of the execution date until the day it takes place. The identity of the convict is also not released.

Japanese media said yesterday the person executed was Shinji Mukai, convicted in 1985 of murdering three people.