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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Justin McCurry in Tokyo

After freeing a man who spent half a century on death row, will Japan keep using the death penalty?

Hideko Hakamada (C) holds a banner reading
Hideko Hakamada (C) holds a banner reading "innocent man, not guilty verdict" to support her brother Iwao Hakamada, as she arrives to the Shizuoka District Court on September 26, 2024. The world's longest-serving death row prisoner was freed last month after nearly 50 years on death row. Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images

By any reasonable legal measure, Iwao Hakamada should not have lived to see his conviction for murder overturned.

The former boxer, who spent almost half a century on death row after being convicted of killing a family of four in the late 1960s, was acquitted last week in one of the most closely watched miscarriages of justice in postwar Japan.

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