Overview
- Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi announced the execution of a 58-year-old who was convicted for pouring gasoline and setting fire to an Osaka game parlor that killed five people.
- The man was sentenced to death in 2011 after a court rejected the defense’s claim that he was mentally ill at the time of the attack; the sentence was carried out by hanging.
- Officials say about 100 people remain on Japan’s death row and that prisoners are typically told only on the morning their sentences will be carried out, reflecting the system’s secrecy.
- Japan remains one of the few wealthy democracies that still uses the death penalty and among G7 states only Japan and the United States legally permit executions; public polls show broad support but a rising share favor abolition.
- The execution, the first under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, is likely to sharpen domestic debate over capital punishment and draw attention from international human rights groups monitoring Japan’s practices.