Japan executed Sunao Takami, 58, on Friday for a 2009 arson attack that killed five people and injured 10 others at a pachinko parlor in Osaka. This marks the first execution carried out under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government.
Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi announced the execution, stating that the crime caused "extremely serious outcomes and dealt a major shock and fear to the society." Takami set fire to the crowded parlor by spreading gasoline and throwing a lit match, engulfing the building in flames. He was convicted of murder, attempted murder, and arson in 2011, and his death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2016.
Japan currently has 100 individuals on death row, with 43 awaiting retrials. The country faces growing international criticism over its continued use of capital punishment, as most of the global community has abolished the practice. Japan and the United States remain the only Group of Seven nations that still implement the death penalty.
Calls for abolition or increased transparency have intensified following the 2024 acquittal of Iwao Hakamada, who was known as the world's longest-serving death-row inmate. Executions in Japan are conducted in secrecy, with prisoners typically informed of their impending death on the morning of the execution. While Japan began disclosing the names of those executed and details of their crimes in 2007, such disclosures remain limited.
Hiraguchi defended the method of hanging, citing past Supreme Court rulings that found it not to be crueler than other methods like lethal injection or electrocution. He also pointed to surveys indicating that a majority of the Japanese public supports the death penalty as a necessary option. The Justice Minister stated that changing the practice of limited disclosure would disturb the mental state of inmates on death row.
Friday's hanging occurred during a parliamentary recess, a timing criticized by some as an attempt to avoid public debate, though Hiraguchi denied this was intentional. Japan's crime rate is generally low, but the nation has seen several high-profile mass killings in recent years. In 2025, Japan executed a man convicted of killing and dismembering nine people in 2017.