Tokyo: Japan executed Takahiro Shiraishi, convicted of murdering and dismembering nine people he contacted through social media, marking the country’s first use of the death penalty in nearly three years.
Shiraishi, dubbed the ‘Twitter killer,’ was hanged on Friday for the 2017 murders of eight women and one man in his apartment in Zama city, Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo.
He had lured victims, many of whom expressed suicidal thoughts online, offering to help them die before killing them. Authorities found body parts of the victims stored in coolers around his small apartment.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, who authorized the execution, said the decision followed a thorough review of the case, emphasizing Shiraishi’s extremely selfish motives and the great shock and unrest his crimes caused society.
The execution is Japan’s first since July 2022, when Tomohiro Kato was hanged for a 2008 stabbing rampage in Tokyo’s Akihabara district. Last September, a Japanese court acquitted Iwao Hakamada, who had spent the world’s longest time on death row, ruling that his decades-old conviction was wrongful.
One of the most high-profile executions in recent years was in 2018, when Shoko Asahara, leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, and 12 associates were executed for orchestrating the 1995 sarin gas attacks on Tokyo’s subway system, which killed 14 and injured thousands.
Capital punishment in Japan is carried out by hanging, with prisoners typically informed only hours before execution. This practice has drawn criticism from human rights groups due to the severe psychological toll it imposes.
Among the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations, only Japan and the United States continue to use the death penalty. Despite international criticism, public support for capital punishment remains high in Japan.
