A bipartisan group of lawmakers opposed to the death penalty has compiled a bill that would place a moratorium on executions as a step toward abolishing capital punishment.

The bill will feature introduction of life imprisonment without parole and establishment of investigative panels in both Diet chambers on the death penalty system, according to members of the Japan Parliamentary League Against the Death Penalty.

The group, headed by Shizuka Kamei, a lawmaker from Kokumin Shinto (New People's Party), hopes to submit the bill to the House of Councilors during the current Diet session.

If passed, the bill would go into force April 1, 2009, and executions would be suspended for four years through March 2013, during which time the investigation panels would examine the death penalty system and develop a new system for sentencing.

Some of the group's members are in the governing Liberal Democratic Party.