The Council of Europe will send a delegation to Japan this month to inspect Japan's death penalty system, government sources said Friday in Tokyo.
The delegation members will hold talks with the heads of the Justice Ministry's Criminal Affairs and Correction bureaus during their Feb. 20-23 visit, the sources said.
The delegation, led by Renate Wohlwend, is also expected to meet former death row inmates, including Sakae Menda and Masao Akabori, and the families of murder victims.
However, the Justice Ministry will not allow the delegates to inspect cells for death row convicts or the execution chamber at the Tokyo Detention House, as requested by a group of lawmakers calling for the abolition of capital punishment, the sources said.
The delegation will be hosted by the legislators' group, which is led by Yasuko Takemura, a Democratic Party of Japan member of the House of Councilors.
It will be the first time for an official international organization to inspect Japan's death penalty system, according to a Tokyo-based citizens' group seeking Japan's ratification of the international covenant on the abolition of the death penalty.
The council, based in Strasbourg, France, has 43 member states and supports the abolition of the death penalty. Japan has joined the organization as an observer.