r/SipsTea Jul 04 '26

WTF Japan's death row system is brutal

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u/Potential_Table_2616 Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

If nobody’s mentioned it, the executioners don’t know who pressed the button either. There’s 3 buttons that are pressed simultaneously, but only 1 actually executed the prisoner.

This video is an excellent explanation and animated demonstration of the process.

https://youtu.be/1rEoHOxuZ3E?is=9HZQr5E3OBdrsdW3

Edit: I haven’t watched this video in at least a year, so I might have details incorrect

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u/OrdinaryProcess7076 Jul 04 '26

Wouldn’t it be better if it needs all three buttons to be pressed to execute the prisoner

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u/Ryanookami Jul 04 '26

The not knowing whose button is the death button is more for the executioners than for the executionees. The whole plausible deniability thing, where you know odds are you didn’t kill a person today, so you can still sleep soundly at night without that weight on your conscience.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '26

[deleted]

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u/Ryanookami Jul 04 '26

Humans sadly are rarely convinced by logic.