Tokyo – Japan hanged two inmates this Thursday September 27th 2012, two months after the last executions took place on August 3rd.
Sachiko Eto, 65, a faith healer and self-professed exorcist, was convicted for murder after the deaths of six believers in Fukushima Prefecture between 1994 and 1995.
According to Japanese media reports and The Associated Press, Sachiko Eto, her daughter and another accomplice had beaten their victims to death, using thick drumsticks designed for the Japanese 太鼓 (Taiko) and other blunt instruments. The beating were to “drive out demons hiding in their bodies” and conducted in her home. At least one of the exorcism (悪魔払い）was apparently motivated by Ms. Eto’s decision that the the victim was sleeping with Ms. Eto’s lover. Another victim was “exorcised” after refusing to loan Ms. Eto money. There were also questions as to the vanishing of her husband in 1992, before she became a spiritual leader.
She was convicted on four counts of murder, and two counts of assault resulting in death. She was hanged this Thursday morning in Sendai detention center. At this point in the time, while Ms. Eto was blessed with magical powers, she has not successfully resurrected herself. Sachiko Eto is reportedly the first female in Japan to be executed in more than 15 years. Her daughter and the other accomplice have both been sentenced to life in prison.
Yukinori Matsuda, 39, was convicted for the murder of a man and a woman during a robbery in Uki, Kumamoto Prefecture in 2003. He also died by hanging the same morning in Fukuoka detention center. Nikkansports reported it was found that Matsuda had written a letter, dated from September 19th, to the families of those he killed, where he wrote that he would donate his organs after his execution and that “there would be no regrets.” In the letter, he also expressed that he deeply regretted having committed the “irreparable act,” and that he was “praying for the souls of his victims.” In the letter, he also said that he would have preferred to receive a lethal injection rather than be hung.
Kyodo News reported that it was the second round of executions carried under the Justice Minister Makoto Taki. According to Kyodo News, Minister Taki said at a press conference that he had selected the two inmates for their “extremely malicious and cruel crimes, which had a very negative social impact.”
Japan still one of the few industrialized countries to administer the death penalty
Japan is one of the last industrialized countries to still practice death penalty, together with the United States, China, and Middle East countries.
According to Amnesty International, from 1977 to 2010, the number of countries which abolished death penalty for all crime went from 16 to 96, and the death penalty has been abolished in 140 countries “by law or in practice,” while 58 countries, including Japan, maintains it.
In October 2010, The Japan Economic Newswire reported that “Japan has been urged to consider termination of the death penalty, regardless of domestic public opinion to support it, with the Geneva-based Human Rights Committee saying in 2008, ‘Regardless of opinion polls, the state party (Japan) should favorably consider abolishing the death penalty and inform the public, as necessary, about the desirability of abolition.’”
Reportedly, Mr. Kunio Suzuki, a Japanese right wing activist, expressed opposition to capital punishment on October 10th, 2010 during a anti-death penalty rally in Tokyo on the World’s Day Against Death Penalty: “Death row inmates must have killed someone in extremely embattled situations, and we should examine their experiences as ‘negative legacy’ of a state and pay attention to individual stories of each death row inmate.” He said.
[…] indépendant Sachiko Eto, 65 ans, avait réuni autour d’elle une petite secte et, selon Japan Subculture, toute personne qui la croisait été exorcisé à coup de bâton : Sachiko Eto, 65, a faith healer […]
i did ask him. apparently what actually occurred is they were almost going to buy it, before the father decided that something fishy was going on and asked the agent. Ultimately the father figured that the price was low enough that wouldn’t lose money when he sold it , and in the meantime the family could enjoy living somewhere that ordinarily would have been beyond their means. The main problem was that his wife refused to move in because of the suicide thing. She thought the ghost would haunt the place. If they hadn’t had the wife’s grandmother around they would have had to pay for an exorcism.
hmm my japanese friends great grandmother was was an “itako.” It’s like a shaman in Shinto. They still have them up in the north. People apparently would come from miles around to ask her for various favors, such as bringing rain, fortune telling, finding stuff that they had lost, or asking why they’d had a bad run of luck in general. Usually the diagnosis was that some local spirit or ancestor of the questioner wanted some sort of demonstration of obeisance. My friend was kinda creeped out by her because, like most itako, she was blind, and her eyes were like milky orbs. My friend’s family was about to move into a place in Akasaka that they bought at an amazingly low price until they found out that someone killed themselves there.His Mom wouldn’t move in until her itako grandma had come and performed some “ritual” where she spoke to the spirit of the guy who killed himself and “persuaded” him to leave.
Thank you for sharing that story! Would you like to turn it into a longer article for the blog?
In Japan, the law requires a realtor to let anyone wishing to purchase or rent a property if there has been a death or suicide on the premises–these are considered “important facts” or 重要事項 (juyou jikou)。 The real estate law mandates that the realtor explain that to prospective tenants or they can be sued for damages and the contract declared null and void if it is later revealed they failed to disclose the information.
There is a small niche industry in doing exorcisms for 事項物件 (jikko bukken) or “haunted flats.”
i’ll have to go and ask him for further details. It seems that real estate agents there are about as slimy as they are over here. My friend’s family weren’t told about the whole suicide thing until they asked about why the place was being offered for a fraction of its usual price and why it had spent so long on the market without a buyer. It’s a good thing his great grandma was still alive, otherwise they would’ve had to pay for an exorcism, which apparently aren’t cheap.
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if any Japanese need cure from ghost problem please contact.
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