ANKARA

Japan on Thursday ruled out ending the death penalty, spurning local and international pressures, including calls by local legal experts for a review.

"The government thinks it is not appropriate to abolish the death penalty, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo, according to Kyodo News.

"The death penalty is unavoidable for a person who has committed an extremely grave and atrocious crime," the official was quoted as saying.

The announcement came after a 16-member panel, including a former top prosecutor, a former top police official, and academics, proposed to the Cabinet and Parliament the establishment of a conference body to discuss whether to maintain capital punishment.

In its report, the panel cited the case of Iwao Hakamata, an 88-year-old man who spent nearly half a century on death row before being acquitted in a recent retrial over a 1966 quadruple murder. "Once a mistake occurs, it takes a very long time to correct it,” it added.

Hakamata’s acquittal after nearly five decades brought global scrutiny to Japan’s criminal justice system and fueled calls to abolish capital punishment in the country.

Retrials are uncommon in Japan, where 99% of cases result in convictions. There have been no executions in Japan over two years.

Japan and the US are the only G7 countries still handing down death penalties.