Tokyo Detention House

The Tokyo Detention House[1] (東京拘置所, Tōkyō Kōchisho) is a correctional facility in Katsushika, Tokyo.[2] A part of the penal system of Japan, it is operated by the Ministry of Justice. It is one of seven detention houses in Japan, which detain people awaiting trial, as well as those who have been sentenced to death and await execution.

Tokyo Detention House
東京拘置所
LocationKatsushika, Tokyo, Japan 1-35-1
StatusIn operation
Capacity3010
Opened1879
Managed byMinistry of Justice (Japan), Tokyo correctional province
1989 aerial photograph of the correctional facility and its surroundings

History

The TDH has a tactical response unit, the Special Security Response Team, established on April 1, 2019.[3]

Execution chamber
Main article: Capital punishment in Japan

One of Japan's seven execution chambers is in this facility. All executions in Japan are carried out by hanging. The execution chamber in Tokyo has a trap door, which is opened by one of the three buttons in the next-door room, which are simultaneously pressed by three prison staff members so that none of them will know for certain which of them pressed the real button.[4]

As the condemned dies, their body falls into a room below the execution chamber, and in that room the death is confirmed.[5] Before the condemned is executed, they pass a statue of Amida Nyorai (Amitābha), one of the Buddhas. The execution room is in two sections, with both of them together the size of a 15 tatami mat room.[2]

Notable prisoners

References
  1. "Penal Institutions in Japan Archived 2010-07-03 at the Wayback Machine." Ministry of Justice. Retrieved on August 27, 2010. Text found in Google search says "(Front cover: Tokyo Detention House)"
  2. "Diet members tour execution chamber." The Japan Times. Thursday July 24, 2003. Retrieved on August 27, 2010.
  3. "法務省：特別機動警備隊".
  4. "Inside Japan's secret death chambers where prisoners are put to death". Daily Mirror. 6 July 2018.
  5. Lendon, Brad. "Japan reveals long-secretive execution process." CNN. August 27, 2010. Retrieved on August 27, 2010.
  6. The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn, NY Times, December 30, 2018
  7. Eiji Takemae (1 January 2003). Allied Occupation of Japan. A&C Black. p. 239. ISBN 978-0-8264-1521-9.
  8. "Aum Shinrikyo: Japan executes cult leader Shoko Asahara". BBC News. July 4, 2018. Shoko Asahara's execution, at a Tokyo detention house on Friday morning, was confirmed by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
  9. United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities (1951). Hearings on American Aspects of the Richard Sorge Spy Case: Based on Testimony of Mitsusada Yoshikawa and Maj. Gen. Charles A. Willoughby. Hearings. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 1148–1149.
  10. "The World: Tanaka: Prisoner of 'Money Power'." Time. Monday August 9, 1976. Retrieved on August 29, 2010. "The spartan cell is no different from that of any ordinary inmate at the Tokyo House of Detention—"
  11. Japan Quarterly. Asahi Shimbun. 1977. p. 128.
  12. "AFP: Japan executes notorious cannibal killer". 2013-07-09. Archived from the original on 2013-07-09. Retrieved 2019-03-22.
  13. "Japan hangs three death row inmates". 2013-02-21. Retrieved 2019-03-22.

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