‘Twitter killer’ executed in Japan after murdering nine

The man behind one of Japan’s most disturbing serial murder cases—dubbed the ‘Twitter killer’—has been executed, breaking a nearly three-year pause in the country’s use of capital punishment.

Japan on Friday executed Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the 'Twitter killer', who was convicted of murdering nine people in 2017. The victims, eight women and one man, were lured via social media before being strangled and dismembered in his apartment in Zama city, near Tokyo.

Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki approved the execution, calling Shiraishi’s motives "extremely selfish" and noting the social harm caused by the case.

"It is not appropriate to abolish the death penalty while these violent crimes are still being committed," Suzuki said, adding that 105 people remain on death row in Japan.

This marks the first use of the death penalty in Japan since July 2022, when another convicted murderer was executed for a 2008 stabbing spree in Akihabara.

It is also the first execution since Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s government took office in October.

Japan retains the death penalty by hanging, a method and system criticised by human rights advocates due to the short notice given to inmates.

Last year, attention was drawn to Japan’s capital punishment system when courts acquitted Iwao Hakamada, who spent decades on death row following a wrongful conviction dating back nearly 60 years.

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