In a historic decision, Japan has awarded Iwao Hakamada, who spent nearly half a century in prison wrongfully, a compensation of 217 million yen ($1.44 million), marking the largest-ever criminal compensation payout in the country. Hakamada, now 89, was convicted in 1966 for a quadruple murder and spent most of his time in solitary confinement on death row. In a groundbreaking retrial last year, the Shizuoka district court exonerated him, ruling that police had tampered with evidence. Despite the significant payout, Hakamada’s legal team argues that the compensation does not adequately address the profound psychological and physical suffering he endured. The financial award is calculated at 12,500 yen ($83) per day for his 46 years in detention. Japan remains one of the few industrialized nations, alongside the United States, to still practice capital punishment, a policy widely supported by the public. Hakamada’s case is the fifth instance of a death row inmate being granted a retrial since Japan’s post-war period, with all previous cases also leading to exonerations.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/25/japan-grants-1-4m-to-record-breaking-death-row-inmate?traffic_source=rss