The maximum legal penalty in Japan is death. Locked alone in their tiny cells, 56 death-row prisoners are now awaiting their fate. Last year, one person was executed. No one knows how many will be this year.

According to Amnesty International, 117 countries have outlawed the death penalty or are operating moratoriums. Despite this continuing international trend, however, Japan remains one of 78 countries still carrying out capital punishment.

The Criminal Law states that grave crimes such as robbery, murder, insurrection and arson may merit a death sentence.

In practice, though, criminals are hardly ever condemned to death unless they have killed two or more people. Once the sentence has been finalized, they are kept at one of seven detention centers with execution chambers -- Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima and Fukuoka -- to await the noose.

For some, that wait may be a few years; for others it could be decades. No one knows who will be next, or when, although most executions occur when the Diet is not in session. However, once Justice Ministry bureaucrats have made the decision, and the justice minister approves it, the execution must take place within five days.

As in the United States, debate over the abolition of capital punishment has ignited in recent years in Japan.

In 1999, a Cabinet Office survey found that out of 3,600 respondents, 79.3 percent supported Japan's retaining the death penalty "under certain circumstances." (That figure might be even higher now, following the death sentence handed down to Aum Shinrikyo leader Shoko Asahara in February.) Certainly, such public support is one of the chief reasons cited by politicians and bureaucrats for retaining the ultimate punishment.

Nevertheless, in 1990 a group of Diet members, lawyers, journalists and others founded Forum 90, an organization dedicated to getting the death penalty abolished in Japan. Then in 1994, Liberal Democratic Party member Shizuka Kamei and other Diet members formed a nonpartisan group opposed to the death penalty. And last year, a multidenominational religious network was established to stop executions and to urge people to reconsider the importance of life.

"I don't think that the government should use public opinion as an excuse," said Kyoko Otani, a Tokyo-based lawyer who has defended five death-row inmates. "Even in France, the majority of the people were for capital punishment but they abolished it there anyway in 1981. It is wrong to justify taking the life of a person on the basis of a consensus."

Persuading Japanese people to take that view is, however, made more difficult by the fact that the gap down to the next most severe sentence -- which is life imprisonment -- is so wide. This is because at present, Japan's "lifers" may be considered for parole after serving 10 years, while those sentenced to definite terms may be paroled after serving a third of their term.

"True, that is the law," said Otani. "Many people think that those with a life sentence come out after 10 years, but that is not the case. It just means that after 10 years, authorities may consider their parole. But in reality very few are paroled then."

Further complicating the abolitionist cause is the suffering of the victims' families. While some say capital punishment is the only way to atone for a crime, and for family members to have a chance of "closure," others contend that even that does not heal the wounds.

"As long as the death penalty exists, the victims are convinced into thinking that their wounds will not heal until the offender is killed," said Otani. "Certainly, support for the victims must be considered if the death penalty is abolished. But we cannot use capital punishment as a consolation for the victims."

As the debate over the death penalty progresses, the Japanese government will eventually have to decide whether to maintain or abolish it. This year will be crucial, as the Japan Federation of Bar Associations' 47th Convention on the Protection of Human Rights, in October, will focus on the death penalty in Japan. The JFBA is also planning on hosting nine symposiums throughout the country in preparation for the event.

"At present, the issues surrounding the abolition of the death penalty cannot be fairly discussed," said Otani. "Most people do not know the actual situation behind this system. If they did, they would realize that there is no need for the death penalty."