Japan worker nears half a century on death row

TOKYO: Iwao Hakamada worked at a soybean processing factory east of Tokyo when he was arrested and later sentenced to death for the grisly murder of his boss and the man’s family.
Hakamada was 30 years old. The year was 1966. The United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a Cold War space race, Star Trek was in its first season and Japanese factories were busy pumping out a consumer product that would power its economic boom: Color televisions.
Nearly five decades later the Soviet Union is a relic of history, Star Trek is a global franchise, while Japan’s world-beating economy is recovering from 20 years of tepid growth. And Hakamada, once a professional boxer, is a frail old man who spends his days in a solitary prison cell.
The 77-year-old is believed to be the world’s longest-serving condemned inmate, a man supporters say has lost his grip on reality while awaiting death by hanging -— or old age -— even as questions over his guilt emerge.
“What I am worried about most is Iwao’s health. If you put someone in jail for 47 years, it’s too much to expect them to stay sane,” Hakamada’s now 80-year-old sister Hideko told AFP outside the Tokyo Detention House.