In brief
Japan executed Sunao Takami, 58, for detonating a gasoline‑covered pachinko parlour near Osaka that claimed five lives in 2009. The judge panel rejected psychiatric defence, sentencing him to death in 2011. This marks the first execution under Prime Minister Takaichi and follows the execution of"Twitter killer" Takahiro Shiraishi a year earlier. While public support for capital punishment remains strong, rights groups criticize solitary confinement and lack of transparency surrounding Japanese executions.
Japan carries out the death penalty for a 2009 pachinko parlour fire.
Sunao Takami, 58, was sentenced to death after he set a gasoline‑coated pachinko din, near his home in Osaka, ablaze, killing four customers and one employee in 2009.
A six‑member jury and three judges dismissed the defence’s claim of mental illness during the crime, and in 2011 sentenced him to hanging.
Japan and the United States are the only G7 nations that retain capital punishment; death‑row inmates in Japan are usually notified of a hanging just hours before execution.
"We carried out the execution after careful and thorough consideration," Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said on Friday, noting this was the first execution under Prime Minister Takaichi.
In late 2025 Japan executed Takahiro Shiraishi, the "Twitter killer" who murdered and dismembered nine people in 2017.
Public opinion surveys indicate strong support for the death penalty in Japan, even as rights organisations flag concerns over solitary confinement and opaque execution scheduling.
