Japan executed Sunao Takami, 58, on Friday for setting fire to a crowded Osaka pachinko parlor in 2009, an act that killed five people and injured 10 others. The execution is the first to be carried out under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government.
Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi stated that Takami spread gasoline and ignited it, causing extreme societal shock and fear. "The victims whose lives were taken away must have felt unimaginable pain and fear, and those who suffered injuries ... were forced to live with long-term effects," Hiraguchi said in a news conference.
Takami was convicted of murder, attempted murder, and arson, receiving a death sentence in 2011. The Supreme Court upheld the death penalty in 2016 after rejecting his appeals. Japan currently has 100 individuals on death row, with 43 awaiting retrials.
Japan faces ongoing criticism for its continued use of capital punishment, positioning it alongside the United States as the only Group of Seven nations that retain the death penalty. International calls for abolition or increased transparency have intensified, particularly following the 2024 acquittal of Iwao Hakamada, who was previously the world's longest-serving death-row inmate.
Executions in Japan are conducted with little notice to prisoners, who are typically informed on the morning of their hanging. While Japan has disclosed the names of those executed and some crime details since 2007, broader transparency remains limited. Hiraguchi defended the current practice, suggesting that disclosing more details could negatively impact the mental state of inmates awaiting execution.
The timing of Friday's execution during a parliamentary recess drew criticism as a potential tactic to avoid public debate, a claim Hiraguchi denied.
This is not the first high-profile execution in recent years; in June 2025, Japan executed a man convicted of killing and dismembering nine people in 2017.