Expectations are growing that Japan will take its first step to abolish the death penalty since a group of lawmakers has decided to submit a bill to the current Diet session to suspend executions, and debates over the issue are now focusing on alternative penalties.

The Japan Parliamentary League Against the Death Penalty plans to submit the bill as early as June, which proposes introducing life imprisonment without parole, while suspending executions for four years, in what it considers "a milestone" on the road to abolishing capital punishment.

It is the first time a bill related to abolishing the death penalty will be submitted to the Diet since 1956.

But some anti-death penalty activists say that life imprisonment without parole can also be considered a cruel punishment, and its introduction will lead to tougher penalties.

Under the bill, the 122-member multiparty parliamentary league, headed by former Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Shizuka Kamei, will propose setting up an ad hoc commission in the Diet to discuss capital punishment and suspending executions while the debate continues.

As a replacement for capital punishment, the bill proposes that perpetrators of serious crimes can receive a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without parole, although it guarantees prisoners the right to apply for amnesty after serving a minimum of 25 years.

"Under the strongly-rooted public view supporting capital punishment, it is unlikely a bill to abolish it will be enacted immediately," Kamei told a recent symposium on the death penalty in Tokyo. "But at least we will be able to achieve a four-year moratorium on executions if people accept our proposal for life imprisonment without parole."

"More than a few LDP lawmakers will accept the proposal if we can punish violent criminals with life imprisonment," he added.

Meiji University professor, Koichi Kikuta, threw his complete support behind the bill, saying, "We need to take a realistic approach. People will eventually accept the abolition of the death penalty on the condition that the state introduces life imprisonment without parole."

A long-time anti-death penalty activist on the floor shared these views. "Death-row inmates live in fear of death every day. We urgently need to prevent the government from hanging them."

Death-row inmates in Japan are not informed of their fate until the morning of their execution day, so they live under the shadow of death every day for several years after their sentence is finalized.

Meanwhile, Toshihiro Yamauchi, professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University, voiced a cautious view at the symposium about introducing life imprisonment without parole.

"While I welcome the proposal on a moratorium on executions, I cannot ignore the cruelty of life imprisonment without parole, which definitely damages the mental conditions of prisoners," he said.

Ryukoku University professor, Shinichi Ishizuka, who strongly opposes life imprisonment, said, "The introduction of tough punishments will not necessarily achieve a crime deterrent effect."

The lawmakers' league consulted with anti-death penalty activists and civil groups when they compiled the bill.

Misaki Yagishita, an anti-death penalty campaigner at Amnesty International Japan, said, "We do not completely agree with the proposal to introduce life imprisonment even as a first step to abolish capital punishment."

"We believe life imprisonment without parole is a cruel punishment, but we will have to accept it if it really leads to a moratorium on executions," she said.

The ad hoc commission will debate for three years by summoning experts and representatives from various fields to obtain their views on the death penalty before reaching its conclusion.

"It will be the worst scenario if the commission decides to maintain capital punishment and the option of imposing a sentence of life imprisonment without parole remains," Yagishita said. "I do not want to see such an outcome."

Japan's use of the death penalty has come under extensive international criticism, especially because executions are conducted secretly and death-row inmates face harsh conditions, including complete isolation and strict restrictions on their communication and contacts with people from the outside.

Moreover, four inmates were taken off death row after being acquitted in retrials in the 1980s.

Given these factors, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations urged the government last November to disclose more information about the capital punishment system if it intends to cite public opinion as a major reason for maintaining the death penalty.

The lawyers' group also proposed suspending executions until these unfavorable aspects of the Japanese judicial system are improved and public debate reaches a certain consensus.

The international community has been urging Japan to abolish the death penalty, with the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental organization promoting fundamental human rights, and the U.N. Human Rights Commission repeatedly recommending that Tokyo move to abolish capital punishment.

Despite their different views over the introduction of life imprisonment without parole, Kamei and Yamauchi agreed that many social factors, such as poverty or abuse, lead people to commit crimes, and the existence of the death penalty, which is murder by the state, leads to the justification of killing.

"It is the responsibility of politicians to create a society that will not foster criminals," Kamei said.

The biggest challenge will be to convince the Japanese public, which strongly supports the death penalty, to come around to Kamei and Yamauchi's views when the bill is finally submitted to the Diet. (Kyodo News)