JAPAN EXECUTES MAN FOR 2009 PACHINKO PARLOUR ARSON

Japan executed Sunao Takami on Friday for an arson attack on a pachinko parlour in Osaka in 2009 that killed five people. Takami doused the gaming venue with petrol and set it alight, killing four customers and one employee. A six-member jury and panel of three judges rejected the defence's argument that Takami was mentally ill at the time of the crime, and sentenced him to death in 2011. Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said the execution was ordered "after careful and thorough consideration".

This marks Japan's first execution in more than a year, following the execution of Takahiro Shiraishi in June 2025. Shiraishi, known as the "Twitter killer", murdered and dismembered nine people in 2017. Japan and the United States are the only G7 countries that retain capital punishment. According to a 2024 government survey, 83 per cent of Japanese respondents viewed the death penalty as "unavoidable", though support for abolition had risen to 17 per cent from nine per cent five years earlier.

Rights groups have criticised Japan's execution system, citing prolonged solitary confinement of death row inmates and lack of transparency regarding when executions occur. Death row prisoners in Japan are typically notified of their execution only hours in advance. Approximately 100 people currently remain on death row, according to the justice ministry. This was the first execution carried out under the Takaichi administration.