The Defender of Death-row Convicts

Japan is a country that still retains the death penalty. All suspects in crimes that strongly shook the nation - Shoko Asahara from the 1995 Aum Tokyo subway gas attacks, Masumi Hayashi from the “poisoned curry” murder case in Wakayama, an unnamed minor from the murder case of a mother and her child in the city of Hikari - have all been sentenced to death. 64-year-old Yoshihiro Yasuda is a lawyer who defends the ‘undefendable’: the death row convicts in court, while suffering slander from the Japanese public and media. This documentary analyzes a number of death-row cases in Japan, and attitudes towards the accused and to the death penalty itself.

Director

Jun'ichi Saito