For the first time, Japan revealed one of its execution chambers last week, after two death row inmates were executed at the end of July.

Justice Minister, Keiko Chiba, gave journalists access to the chambers by signing two execution orders in late July. Normally a criminal is placed on death row if they are convicted of multiple murders, so this isn't exactly a common occurrence.

Death row inmates Kazuo Shinozawa and Hidenori Ogata were two of the prisoners put to death a little over a month ago. Chiba signed the orders after carefully weighing all the factors involved, and although she claims to be an abolitionist, her actions speak louder than her words.

Shinozawa was sentenced to death row after being found guilty of tying up six female shop assistants, dousing them in petrol, and then setting them and the store on fire. Ogata was charged for stabbing a 28-year old man, strangling a woman, and seriously injuring two others.

When Chiba accepted the job of Justice Minister, she said, �I will deal cautiously with the issue of capital punishment, because this is a matter of life and death.� For nearly a year, none of the 109 death row inmates were ordered to execution, but in the case of Shinozawa and Ogata, not only did she sign their death warrants, but she also made history by being the first Justice Minister to attend the executions.

"I decided to attend both executions as I was the one who ordered them," she says. "Witnessing the hangings with my own eyes made me think deeply about the death penalty," says the minister.

This facility is one of seven nationwide execution chambers in Japan. The prisoners are hanged by a carefully calculated drop through a trapdoor, and the trapdoor is designed to break the neck instantaneously.

The chamber is much like a conference room, only it�s not. It�s separated by a curtain and on the other side of it is a room with a golden Buddha where the prisoner can pray before his sentence is carried out. The execution room and the room below are both viewable through pane windows for galleries who wish to witness the execution. The metal rings you see in the photos are for securing the rope.

There are three switches, in which only one actually releases the door. They are pressed simultaneously by three guards so that no one knows who actually did it.

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