Japan has executed Sunao Takami, 58, who set a pachinko parlour on fire in Osaka in 2009, killing five people. A jury and judges sentenced him to death in 2011 after rejecting his defense that he was mentally ill at the time of the crime. This is Japan's first execution in over a year, and Takami's hanging marks the first under the current Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi. The execution has sparked criticism from rights groups who argue that death row inmates are subjected to solitary confinement and lack transparency about their impending executions.
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Japan has executed a man named Sunao Takami, 58 years old, who was convicted of killing five people in a pachinko parlour fire in 2009. The incident occurred near his home in Osaka. Takami had intentionally set the fire by dousing the building with gasoline, resulting in the deaths of four customers and one employee. This is Japan's first execution in over a year, and it was carried out under the administration of Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi, who said that the decision to execute Takami was made after "careful and thorough consideration". Japan and the United States are the only G7 countries that still impose capital punishment, with death row prisoners typically receiving short notice before their execution. This is the first execution carried out under Hiraguchi's administration, following a previous execution in June last year of a man named Takahiro Shiraishi, who was convicted of murdering and dismembering nine people in 2017.
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Leaning score +0.15 for article 1834 (high confidence, 1 verified quote) · logged 2026-08-28
Japan has executed a man who killed five people in a gaming parlour fire in 2009, making this the first time in more than a year that the country has enacted the death sentence.
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country → execute → sentence
Sunao Takami, 58, had doused the pachinko gaming parlour near his home in Osaka with gasoline and set it alight, killing four customers and one employee.
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Takami → douse → customers
A six-member jury and a panel of three judges rejected the defence's argument that Takami was mentally ill at the time of the crime, and sentenced him to hang in 2011.
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Takami → reject → 2011
Japan and the United States are the only G7 countries that still impose capital punishment, with death row prisoners in Japan typically being notified of their hanging just a few hours in advance.
"We ordered the execution after careful and thorough consideration," Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said on Friday.
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Hiraguchi → impose → Friday
This is the first execution carried out under the Takaichi administration.
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This → carry → administration
In June last year, Japan executed Takahiro Shiraishi, dubbed the "Twitter killer", who murdered and dismembered nine people in 2017.
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who → execute → 2017
Shiraishi's killings came to light in October 2017, when police found body parts in the Japanese city of Zama, near Tokyo, when they were searching for one of the victims.
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they → come → victims
Surveys suggest there is strong public support for the death penalty in Japan.
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Surveys → suggest → Japan
Rights groups, however, have criticised authorities for leaving death-row inmates in solitary confinement for long periods of time, and also pointed to a lack of transparency as to when executions are carried out.
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executions → criticise → transparency
