(27 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tokyo – 27 June 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press:
"Executions are carried out in high secrecy in Japan, where prisoners are not even informed of their fate until the morning of their hanging. Since 2007, following criticisms, Japan started disclosing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosures are still limited. "
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Tokyo – 10 December 2018
2. Various exteriors of Tokyo Detention Centre where Takahiro Shiraishi’s execution took place
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tokyo – 27 June 2025
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press:
"Japan now has 105 people on death row. There are also growing calls to abolish capital punishment or increase transparency after the acquittal last year of the world’s longest serving death row inmate Iwao Hakamada. Officials in Japan justify the need for execution, saying that a recent government survey shows an overwhelming majority of the public still supports capital punishment, though opposition has somewhat increased. Japan and the United States are the only two countries in the Group of 7 leading industrialized nations that retain capital punishment."
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STORYLINE:
A man convicted of murder for killing and dismembering nine people in his apartment near Tokyo was executed on Friday, Japan’s Justice Ministry said.
Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the “Twitter killer,” was sentenced to death in 2020 for the killings in 2017 of the nine victims, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media.
He was also convicted of sexually abusing female victims.
Police arrested him later that year after finding the bodies of eight teenage girls and women as well as one man in cold-storage cases in his apartment.
Investigators said Shiraishi approached the victims via Twitter, offering to assist them with their suicidal wishes.
He killed the three teenage girls and five women after raping them.
He also killed the boyfriend of one of the women to silence him.
The execution was carried out as calls grow to abolish capital punishment or increase transparency in Japan after the acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death row inmate Iwao Hakamada last year.
Shiraishi was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House in secrecy with nothing disclosed until the execution was done.
Japan now has 105 people on death row, including 49 seeking retrials, Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said.
Executions are carried out in secrecy in Japan, where prisoners are not even informed of their fate until the morning of their hanging.
Since 2007, Japan has begun disclosing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosures are still limited.
Japan and the US are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that retain capital punishment.
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