Overview
- The Ministry of Justice executed Takami Sunao on Friday, August 21, 2026, for a 2009 arson at a pachinko parlor in Osaka that killed five people and injured ten.
- Courts at every level rejected the defense claims that Takami acted under delusions and that hanging is unconstitutional, with the Supreme Court making the sentence final in February 2016.
- The execution came 9 years and 5 months after final judgment, far longer than the non-binding Code of Criminal Procedure guideline that calls for execution within six months of finality.
- This was the first execution under the Takaichi administration and the first carried out in about one year and two months since the June 2025 execution, at a time when Japan still held more than 100 inmates under finalized death sentences.
- The move is likely to intensify calls for a formal national review of capital punishment after a 2024 expert panel report and recent reexaminations of past convictions raised concerns about wrongful convictions, review procedures, and transparency.