Wrongfully Convicted Japanese Man Awarded $1.4 Million after 48 Years on Death Row
The world’s longest-serving death row inmate, Iwao Hakamada, has been awarded a record-breaking $1.4 million in compensation after being exonerated for a 1966 quadruple murder he did not commit.
The 89-year-old former boxer spent over four decades behind bars, most of it on death row, with the constant threat of execution hanging over him.
The compensation, calculated at 12,500 yen ($83) for each day Hakamada spent in detention, was granted by the Shizuoka District Court on Monday. Japanese media report that this is the largest payout ever awarded for a wrongful conviction of this nature.
Despite this, Hakamada’s legal team insists the amount falls short of compensating for the immense suffering he endured.
Hakamada’s exoneration came after a tireless campaign led by his sister and others, shedding light on the flaws within Japan’s justice system.
Last year, a retrial revealed that police had fabricated evidence and forced Hakamada to confess under inhumane conditions—conditions he later recanted. The case has ignited widespread criticism of Japan’s notoriously difficult retrial process and its use of the death penalty.
In September, the court ruled that Hakamada was innocent of the charges—robbery and the murder of his boss and the man’s family—highlighting that the key piece of evidence, a bloodstained set of clothes, was planted by investigators.
The ruling marked a monumental victory, as Hakamada became only the fifth death row inmate in post-war Japan to be granted a retrial, with all previous cases leading to exonerations.
The long years of isolation and fear of execution took a severe toll on Hakamada’s mental health, with his lawyers describing him as existing “in a world of fantasy.” Now living with his sister, Hakamada’s journey to freedom was hard-won, but it has sparked greater scrutiny of Japan’s use of capital punishment, a practice that remains a deeply divisive issue in the country.
Though Hakamada’s acquittal brought a sense of justice, Japan’s justice minister has stated that abolishing the death penalty remains “inappropriate,” even in light of Hakamada’s case, a stance that continues to fuel the debate around the nation’s legal system.
