Three convicts were hanged Feb. 1 and the government released their names in line with the disclosure policy introduced by Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama with his Dec. 7 approval of three executions.

Kunio Hatoyama KYODO PHOTO

Takashi Mochida, 65, went to the gallows at the Tokyo Detention House, Keishi Nago, 37, was hanged in Fukuoka and Masahiko Matsubara, 63, was executed in Osaka.

Coming 55 days after the December hangings, the executions authorized by Hatoyama reduced the number of death-row inmates to 104. Hatoyama has approved six executions since he took up his post last August, and at this rate will surpass his predecessor, Jinen Nagase, who approved 10 during his 11-month stint.

"My judgment will be based on a variety of elements, including considerations for retrials and official pardons — but not on timings or intervals of executions or the number of inmates on death row," Hatoyama said Feb. 1 after approving the hangings.

The Justice Ministry ended its long-standing secrecy surrounding executions last December when it released for the first time the details of the inmates hanged at the time in an apparent effort to dispel criticism. Since 1998, only the number of executed inmates had been disclosed.

The latest hangings come as international bodies are looking to abolish capital punishment.

Last December, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a nonbinding resolution against capital punishment, calling on U.N. member states to establish a moratorium on executions. Japan and the United States, the only major industrialized countries that have not abolished the death penalty, voted against the resolution.