Overview

• Takahiro Shiraishi was hanged on June 27 at Tokyo’s detention center, with inmates notified only on the morning of their execution in line with Japanese practice.
• Shiraishi was arrested in October 2017 after police discovered dismembered remains of nine victims in his Zama apartment south of Tokyo.
• Most of the victims, eight women and one man aged 15 to 26, had posted suicidal thoughts online and were lured by Shiraishi under the pretense of helping them die.
• A Tokyo district court convicted Shiraishi in 2020 on charges of murder, robbery and sexual assault, and his sentence became final after his defense withdrew the last appeal.
• Japan currently holds 105 inmates on death row, 49 of whom are seeking retrials, making it one of only two G7 nations still enforcing capital punishment.