Overview

• Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki confirmed Shiraishi’s execution on June 27, marking Japan’s first execution since July 2022.
• Takahiro Shiraishi was convicted of luring nine people via Twitter in 2017 by promising suicide support before murdering and dismembering them.
• Prosecutors said Shiraishi’s crimes included robbery, rape and murder carried out for his own sexual and financial gain.
• Japan remains one of the few major democracies that enforces death sentences, with the prior execution carried out in July 2022.
• Eighty-three percent of Japanese surveyed in 2024 consider the death penalty unavoidable, even as the 2024 exoneration of Iwao Hakamada after decades on death row raised questions about judicial reliability.