TOKYO: Japan has executed a man who killed five people in a gaming parlour fire in 2009, the country’s justice minister said on Friday, marking the first time in more than a year that Japan has carried out a death sentence.
Sunao Takami, 58, had doused a pachinko parlour near his home in Osaka with gasoline and set it alight, killing four customers and an employee.
A six-member jury and a panel of three judges rejected his defence’s argument that he was mentally ill at the time of the crime. He was sentenced to death in 2011.
“We ordered the execution after careful and thorough consideration,” Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said.
The execution was the first carried out under the Takaichi administration.
Japan Retains Death Penalty
Japan and the United States are the only G7 countries that retain the death penalty.
Death-row prisoners in Japan are typically informed of their execution only a few hours beforehand, a practice criticised by human rights groups.
The country last carried out an execution in June 2025, when Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the “Twitter killer”, was hanged for murdering and dismembering nine people in 2017.
His crimes came to light after police discovered body parts in a flat in Zama, near Tokyo, while investigating the disappearance of one of his victims.
Surveys have consistently indicated strong public support for capital punishment in Japan.
