Overview
- The Justice Ministry announced Friday that Sunao Takami, convicted for a 2009 arson attack that killed five people at an Osaka pachinko parlour, was hanged after appeals were exhausted and the Supreme Court upheld his sentence in 2016.
- Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said he signed the execution order after "careful and thorough considerations" and that Japan now has about 100 people on death row, including dozens seeking retrials.
- Campaigners and Amnesty International Japan condemned the execution, saying Takami had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and arguing that executing someone with a serious mental disorder violates international standards.
- The case has drawn renewed focus on Japan’s opaque execution practices, where inmates are typically told only on the morning of their hanging and the government gives limited post‑execution details.
- Japan and the United States are the only G7 members that still carry out executions, and critics point to recent cases such as the 2024 exoneration of Iwao Hakamada as fueling calls for more transparency or abolition.