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Japan executes a man convicted in 2009 arson and murders in Osaka
AP News • • world
Key Points:
- Sunao Takami was executed by hanging in Japan for setting fire to a pachinko parlor in Osaka in 2009, killing five people and injuring ten others; this marks the first execution under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government.
- Takami was convicted of murder, attempted murder, and arson, sentenced to death in 2011, with his appeals rejected by the Supreme Court in 2016.
- Japan currently has 100 people on death row, including 43 seeking retrials, and continues to face international criticism for its use of capital punishment, being one of only two G7 nations to retain the death penalty.
- Executions in Japan are conducted in secrecy, with prisoners informed only on the morning of their hanging, and the Justice Minister defended this practice and the use of hanging as a humane method.
- Calls for abolition or increased transparency have grown, especially after the 2024 acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death-row inmate, but the government maintains that the death penalty has broad public support and requires careful societal debate.
