Hangings in Japan

Although Japan is one of the most advanced industrialized nations in the world, they still prefer to sentence people to death by hanging
An age old method, originating somewhere in America or Europe, who knows.
Same method is in use in countries such as Iran, Iraq and Pakistan.

Three people executed in Japan yesterday

Some facts from the article and wikipedia:

• Japanese as a majority support death penalty
• The executions are carried out during parliamentary holidays or New Year, so that it is more hard to raise discussion on the matter
• The person executed will spent years highly isolated (up to 30 years!) and will not know when the execution will be carried out except on the morning of execution.
• The family of the person to be executed will not when the execution is and therefore has no chance to meet before. The body is returned to the family after the execution
• The current Japanese minister of Justice said: “I’ll do [execute] double figures in my term [as minister].” (The previous minister was Buddhist and refused to sign executions)