Japan has carried out its first execution under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government, hanging a 58-year-old man convicted of a 2009 arson attack that killed five people at an Osaka pachinko parlor.
The execution of Sunao Takami on Friday marked a solemn milestone for the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Takami was convicted of murder, attempted murder, and arson for dousing a crowded pachinko parlor near his home in Osaka with gasoline and igniting it with a lit match in July 2009. The blaze killed four customers and one employee, while injuring 10 others. Takami was arrested the following day after he turned himself in.
Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi defended the decision during a news conference following the hanging, which the Justice Ministry stated took place earlier Friday. As justice minister, I have ordered an execution after careful and thorough considerations,
Hiraguchi said. He added that the crime caused extremely serious outcomes and dealt a major shock and fear to the society,
and that the victims whose lives were taken away must have felt unimaginable pain and fear, and those who suffered injuries … were forced to live with long-term effects.
Legal Battles and Defense Arguments in the Osaka Arson Case
Throughout his subsequent trials and appeals, Takami’s legal representation fought to limit his criminal responsibility. The defense team had argued that Takami was suffering from a mental disorder and should have had limited criminal responsibility at the time of the incident.
Those arguments ultimately failed to secure leniency. An Osaka District Court sentenced Takami to death in a 2011 ruling following his convictions for murder, attempted murder, and arson. His legal avenues closed permanently in 2016 when a Supreme Court decision upheld the death penalty and rejected his appeals.
Secrecy, Public Opinion, and Japan’s Standing in the G7
Friday’s hanging was the first by Takaichi’s government and took place during a parliamentary recess—a move criticized as a tactic to avoid public debate. Hiraguchi denied it was intentional. The execution brings the total population on Japan’s death row to 100 inmates, including 43 prisoners seeking retrials, as Hiraguchi noted.
Japan has faced growing criticism over its use of the death penalty, as a majority of the international community has abolished capital punishment. Japan and the U.S. are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that put people to death. Calls to abolish capital punishment or increase transparency have grown after the 2024 acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death-row inmate, Iwao Hakamada.
Despite outside criticism, Hiraguchi cited surveys showing the vast majority of Japanese supporting the death penalty as an unavoidable option. Whether to retain or abolish capital punishment is a crucial issue that affects the core of Japan’s criminal justice system and requires careful consideration and broad public debate, he said.
The Policy on Execution Transparency and Disclosure
Executions are carried out in secrecy in Japan, where prisoners are not informed of their fate until the morning of their hanging. Since 2007, Japan has begun disclosing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosures are still limited.
Hiraguchi said he has no intention to change the practice, saying disclosure of additional details would disturb the mental state of the death-row inmates. He defended hanging as a valid method of execution, citing a number of past Supreme Court decisions saying hanging is not considered more cruel than other methods of execution such as lethal injections, electrocution, and shooting.
Japan previously executed a man in 2025 known as the Twitter killer,
who was convicted of killing and dismembering nine people in his apartment near Tokyo in 2017. While Japan’s crime rate is relatively low, some high-profile mass killings have occurred in recent years.
