China says it has executed first Japanese citizen in almost 40 years

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China executes Japanese for drug smuggling

BEIJING — China executed a Japanese man for drug smuggling, the country’s top court announced Tuesday, the first execution of a Japanese citizen since the countries established relations in 1972.

The Supreme People’s Court said Mitsunobu Akano was executed in Liaoning province after being convicted of trying to smuggle drugs from China, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

It gave no other details. Japanese media reports said that Akano was 65 and that three other Japanese men are on death row in China for drug smuggling. Calls to the Supreme Court and to the High Court in Liaoning were not answered Tuesday.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the execution will deter drug smuggling.

“The legitimate rights and interests of the people concerned have been fully guaranteed,” Jiang said. “We hope this case will not effect the normal development of China-Japan relations.”

Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters that the execution was “regrettable.”

“As the government, we need to make efforts not to allow this to trigger a rift in Japan-China relations, and I would like the people to do the same,” Hatoyama said.

Mizuho Fukushima, leader of the left-leaning Social Democratic Party and Cabinet member of the Hatoyama government, said afterward: “I am extremely shocked. Of course, drug crimes are serious, but in Japan people don’t get the death penalty for those.”

In Tokyo, about a dozen activists gathered outside the Chinese Embassy to hold a candlelight protest, holding signs in Chinese opposing the death penalty and mourning Akano.

His case has attracted a lot less attention than the December execution in Xinjiang of a British man convicted of drug smuggling — China’s first execution of a European citizen in nearly 60 years.

China ignored personal appeals from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown not to execute 53-year-old Akmal Shaikh, whose family said he was mentally unstable. Brown said he was “appalled” by the execution, prompting a warning from Beijing that such comments threatened to damage ties.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency said Akano was convicted in 2008 of attempting to smuggle 2.5 kilograms (4.8 pounds) of drugs from China to Japan in 2006.

Kyodo said the three other Japanese on death row could be executed within the next several days.

China executes more people every year than any other country for a range of crimes, including financial offenses.

Amnesty International Japan issued a statement Tuesday condemning China’s capital punishment and demanding that Beijing immediately halt the planned execution of the three other Japanese.

Associated Press reporters Shino Yuasa and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.