China has executed a Japanese citizen convicted of attempting to smuggle over 1.5 kg of illicit drugs to Japan, the Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday citing court officials.
Mitsunobu Akano, 65, became the first Japanese national to be executed by China since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Tokyo in 1972.
Akano and his accomplice were arrested in September 2006 at an airport in Dalian, in the northeast Liaoning Province trying to carry a total of over 2.5 kg of stimulant drugs through a security checkpoint.
"The courts had clear and irrefutable evidence of drug smuggling and the death sentence was carried out in line with Chinese law," Xinhua cited an announcement by China's the Supreme People's Court.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama expressed regret over the death penalty for Akano but said Japan could not interfere with another country's jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, Beijing has notified Tokyo that it plans to execute three more convicted Japanese drug smugglers this week.
Capital punishment in China is currently administered for a variety of crimes, but the vast majority of executions are for cases of either large scale drug trafficking or aggravated murder.
China executes more people annually than any other nation. According to Amnesty International estimates, over 1,700 executions took place in China in 2008, based on official data, although the real numbers could be much higher.
MOSCOW, April 6 (RIA Novosti)
