China plans to execute Japanese man in drug-trafficking case

SHENYANG, China — Beijing has told Tokyo that it will execute as early as Monday a Japanese man convicted last year of drug trafficking, it was learned Tuesday.

If the execution is carried out, it would be the first time a Japanese is put to death in China after the diplomatic relations between the two countries were restored in 1972.

In September 2006, Mitsunobu Akano was arrested at Dalian Airport in Liaoning Province for attempting with another Japanese to smuggle about 2.5 kilograms of stimulant drugs to Japan. The accomplice was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In June 2008, the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court handed down a death sentence on the Akano. He appealed, but the sentence was finalized after the Liaoning Province High People’s Court upheld it.

Four Japanese, including the man, have been given
death sentences for drug trafficking. The Chinese government has shown
little leniency over the smuggling of stimulant drugs and other
narcotics. The Chinese criminal code stipulates that people caught
smuggling 50 grams of stimulant drugs or more will be subject to
imprisonment of 15 years, life imprisonment or death.

However, drug smuggling attempts by Japanese have shown no significant signs of decline in China. In March, a 28-year-old Japanese from Tokyo was arrested at an airport in Shenyang by the public security authority for attempting to smuggle about 1 kilogram of stimulants to Japan. In July 2009, three Japanese men were arrested at Dalian Airport on drug-trafficking charges.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry plans to tell China that the execution may draw angry responses from Japanese, according to sources.

However, a senior ministry official said the
ministry wants to avoid condemning the Chinese government’s decision
and will react cautiously over the issue.

“The death sentence was finalized based on the
Chinese domestic law. Each country has an exclusive right to decide
what sort of punishment is appropriate to each crime, and we can’t
interfere with it,” the official said.

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(c) 2010, The Yomiuri Shimbun.

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