A person convicted of homicide for killing and dismembering 9 folks in his condo close to Tokyo was executed Friday, Japan’s Justice Ministry stated.
Takahiro Shiraishi, generally known as the “Twitter killer,” was sentenced to dying in 2020 for the killings in 2017 of the 9 victims, most of whom had posted suicidal ideas on social media. He was additionally convicted of sexually abusing feminine victims.
Police arrested him later that yr after discovering the our bodies of eight teenage women and girls in addition to one man in cold-storage instances in his condo.
Investigators stated Shiraishi approached the victims by way of Twitter, providing to help them with their suicidal needs. He killed the three teenage ladies and 5 girls after raping them.
He additionally killed the boyfriend of one of many girls to silence him.
“The case induced the extraordinarily critical outcomes and dealt a significant shockwave and unease to the society,” Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki advised an emergency information convention. He stated he signed the execution earlier this week, however didn’t witness Shiraishi’s hanging.
The execution was carried out as calls develop to abolish capital punishment or enhance transparency in Japan after the acquittal of the world’s longest-serving dying row inmate Iwao Hakamada final yr.
Suzuki justified the necessity for the execution in Japan, noting a latest authorities survey reveals an awesome majority of the general public nonetheless helps capital punishment, although opposition has considerably elevated.
“I imagine it’s not acceptable to abolish execution,” Suzuki stated, including there’s rising concern about critical crime.
Shiraishi was hanged on the Tokyo Detention Home in secrecy with nothing disclosed till the execution was carried out.
Japan now has 105 folks on dying row, together with 49 looking for retrials, Suzuki stated.
Executions are carried out in secrecy in Japan, the place prisoners usually are not even knowledgeable of their destiny till the morning of their hanging.
Since 2007, Japan has begun disclosing the names of these executed and a few particulars of their crimes, however disclosures are nonetheless restricted.
Japan and the US are the one two international locations within the Group of Seven main industrialized nations that retain capital punishment.
Japan’s most up-to-date execution, in July 2022, was of a person who killed seven folks in a automobile crash and stabbing rampage in a crowded Tokyo purchasing district of Akihabara in 2018.
Japan’s crime price is comparatively low, however it has seen some high-profile mass killings in recent times.
