Capital punishment is legal in Japan. The only crimes for which capital punishment is statutory are murder, treason, offences against the state (substantially treason, but applicable to non-Japanese nationals), and serious acts of violence resulting in death (including arson, unauthorised use of explosive, wilful derailment of trains, tampering with the water supply, hijacking, and piracy). The general rule that applies to this last category of capital offences is that of
transferred malice: whether the target of the crime died or an innocent by-stander, the crime is still capital. However, no successful capital prosecutions of any of these crimes, with the sole exception of murder, have occurred since the end of World War II.