Exonerated death row inmate’s sister still fighting, even after release
Hakamada was the fifth death row inmate to be exonerated in Japan’s post-war history.
Daily TribuneHakamada was the fifth death row inmate to be exonerated in Japan’s post-war history.
Photo courtesy of Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP
TOKYO (AFP) — Hideko Hakamada campaigned for almost six decades to get her little brother, the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, cleared. But at 92 she refuses to relax, campaigning against capital punishment in Japan and beyond.
“Courts are run by people and they obviously make mistakes,” Hideko told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in an interview at a congress in Tokyo on the death penalty in East Asia where she was a keynote speaker.
“I fought for 58 years. I cannot just be sad and slow down,” she said at the weekend event that included campaigners from China — the country that executes the most people, rights groups say — North Korea and elsewhere.
Her brother Iwao Hakamada was finally exonerated in 2024 after being convicted for a 1966 quadruple murder, in one of Japan’s biggest miscarriages of justice in modern history.
The ex-boxer spent 46 of those years waiting to be hanged, mostly in solitary confinement. In Japan, death row inmates are only informed that they will be executed on the morning of their final day.
In his acquittal, a court ruled that police tampered with evidence and that Iwao suffered “inhumane interrogations” to force a confession, which he later withdrew.
Cheery and lively, his sister said that Iwao, 89, now spends his days taking naps and going for drives with his supporters, but that he is a broken man.
The lasting effects of his incarceration “cannot be cured,” she said.
“He says silly things. I go with his silly tales and live this silly life,” she said with a smile.
“There is no point in being sad now. If I stay happy and bright, then Iwao should also feel that.”
In March, Iwao won compensation of some 200 million yen ($1.3 million) — around $80 per day in detention — and other lawsuits are ongoing.
‘Loud and clear’
The United States and Japan are the only G7 countries to retain capital punishment, and strong support remains among the Japanese public, surveys show.
Japan has more than 100 inmates on death row and the most recent execution was in June this year, the first since 2022.
Recently back from Italy where she spoke at a conference on the death penalty, Hideko said her brother’s case changed her mind on the subject.
