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Metro
2 days ago
- Metro
Inside Japan's secret death chambers where the very worst criminals are executed
Japan's death row inmates stand on the red square to be hanged (Picture: JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images) Inside what looks like a normal, grey office block, lie the secretive execution rooms where Japan's most notorious criminals are taken to be hanged. The country's use of the death penalty has come into the sportlight again after it carried out its first execution since 2022, of a serial killer who promised to help vulnerable girls and women kill themselves, but then raped and dismembered them, keeping their body parts in cold storage. 'Twitter killer' Takahiro Shiraishi, so-called because of the method he used to first contact his victims, is reported to have spent his last moments at Tokyo Detention House in Katsushika City. From the outside, the building looks unassuming. But deep within its walls lies a chamber with a glass wall where criminals are taken to be hanged – with only an hour or two of notice. In 2010, media were given a rare opportunity to see one of the country's few remaining execution rooms, where the country's worst criminals are put to death. The sterile wood paneled room with garish blue curtains (Credits: JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images) Tokyo Detention House looks like any grey office building (Credits: Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP) Inside the nondescript building, which is surrounded by a low wire fence, criminals on death row are taken to a morbidly empty room. They then stand facing a viewing platform separated by a window, and are made to stand in the middle of a red square. The square marks out a trap door which will give way beneath their feet, sending them plunging down to be hanged. Medics then confirm their death and wipe the body down in a last sterile act. Prisoners are often told of their fate only hours before their execution, meaning families and lawyers are often left in the dark until after the execution has taken place. Before being led to their fate, convicts pass a small gold statue of Kannon, a Buddhist goddess associated with mercy. Witnesses of the hangings have told of their horror as they watch officers pull the mechanical levers to drop prisoners, blindfolded and hooded to muffle their screams, through the floor into a chamber below. View from the platform into execution room (Photo credits: JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images) Despite several years without executions, human rights campaigners feared executions were making a comeback after 21-year-old Yuki Endo, who murdered the parents of a girl after she rejected him, was sentenced to death in January 2024. Yuki was just 19 when he stabbed the girl's parents, attacked and injured her sister with a machete and burned the house down, making him the first person in Japan to be given death penalty for a crime committed between the ages of 18 and 19, the MailOnline reported. The most recent executed prisoner before last week was Tomohiro Kato in 2022, who killed seven people in 2008 by driving a truck into a crowd at the Akihabara shopping district. Why are Japan's executions so secretive? Japan's death penalty law requires that the executions must follow 'utmost secrecy', according to the Death Penalty Information Centre. This extends to the convicts themselves, who typically find out about their execution on the morning it takes place, a local newspaper wrote, citing lawyer Yoshikuni Noguchi who once witnessed an execution. After the announcement, the convict is moved to a special room and monitored by security officers. Where the hooded and blindfolded convict will hang (Credits: JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images) Families are supposed to be told about the execution, but according to the UN and campaigners this isn't always the case. Lawyer Noguchi recounted an execution, describing in detail how with one pull of the lever, the body of the inmate was dropped through the hatch. He had to grab the rope to stop it from shaking. The experience impacted him deeply, with those around him saying he looked pale. He later resigned from his role as a prison officer. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page One of the most infamous convicts executed at Tokyo Detention House is cult leader Shoko Asahara, 63, real name Chizuo Matsumoto. After founding the Aum Shinrikyo cult in 1984, he attracted loyal supporters into his bizarre ideology and world of rituals, such as drinking bathwater and wearing electrical caps for synchronised brain waves. But behind the scenes, the cult was stockpiling weapons, and on March 20, 1995, Asahara and his worshippers released sarin nerve gas into the busy Tokyo subway. The attack killed 13 people. Asahara was eventually convicted of having killed 27 people in 13 murders and other assaults and kidnappings during six years of trying to build his twisted, alternative empire. Following his failed appeals for his release, the mass murderer was hanged on July 6, 2018 with six other cult members. Amnesty International feared that the appointment of Fumio Kishida as Japan's Prime Minister in 2021 showed the country's 'lack of respect for right to life'. Critics of capital punishment like Amnesty argue that death penalty is unacceptable, saying it denies human rights and it is irreversible and mistakes can happen. Amnesty also claimed it does little to deter crime and it is used in countries with problematic human rights record like China, Iran and Saudi Arabia. A version of this article was published in March 2024. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. 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New York Post
5 days ago
- New York Post
Japan executes ‘Twitter killer' who murdered and dismembered 9 people in his apartment
A man convicted of murder for killing and dismembering nine people in his apartment near Tokyo was executed Friday, Japan's Justice Ministry said. Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the 'Twitter killer,' was sentenced to death in 2020 for the killings in 2017 of the nine victims, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media. He was also convicted of sexually abusing female victims. Police arrested him later that year after finding the bodies of eight teenage girls and women as well as one man in cold-storage cases in his apartment. 3 Takahiro Shiraishi was executed after pleading guilty to murdering nine people at his apartment in Japan. Investigators said Shiraishi approached the victims via Twitter, offering to assist them with their suicidal wishes. He killed the three teenage girls and five women after raping them. He also killed the boyfriend of one of the women to silence him. 'The case caused the extremely serious outcomes and dealt a major shockwave and unease to the society,' Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki told an emergency news conference. He said he signed the execution earlier this week, but did not witness Shiraishi's hanging. The execution was carried out as calls grow to abolish capital punishment or increase transparency in Japan after the acquittal of the world's longest-serving death row inmate Iwao Hakamada last year. Suzuki justified the need for the execution in Japan, noting a recent government survey shows an overwhelming majority of the public still supports capital punishment, though opposition has somewhat increased. 3 Takahiro Shiraishi (C) covering his face with his hands as he is transported to the prosecutor's office from a police station in Tokyo on Nov. 1, 2017. JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images 'I believe it is not appropriate to abolish execution,' Suzuki said, adding there is growing concern about serious crime. Shiraishi was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House in secrecy with nothing disclosed until the execution was done. Japan now has 105 people on death row, including 49 seeking retrials, Suzuki said. Executions are carried out in secrecy in Japan, where prisoners are not even informed of their fate until the morning of their hanging. 3 Investigators said Shiraishi approached the victims via Twitter, offering to assist them with their suicidal wishes. JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images Since 2007, Japan has begun disclosing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosures are still limited. Japan and the US are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that retain capital punishment. Japan's most recent execution, in July 2022, was of a man who killed seven people in a vehicle crash and stabbing rampage in a crowded Tokyo shopping district of Akihabara in 2018. Japan's crime rate is relatively low, but it has seen some high-profile mass killings in recent years.
The Star
02-06-2025
- Business
- The Star
Japan to set up Minister-level meeting to address rice supplies
Japan's minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi (R) poses as he inspects the sales status of rice, released by the government from its reserve under a discretionary contract, at a retail store in Tokyo on June 1, 2025. - JIJI PRESS/AFP TOKYO: Japan will set up a minister-level meeting as early as this week to address the supply of rice, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in parliament on Monday (June 2), as the government seeks to stabilise the price of the nation's staple grain and quell public anger ahead of a summer election. The government released a further 300,000 metric tonnes of stockpiled rice last week in a bid to bring down prices, which have doubled in the past year. The move came as households struggle with inflation less than two months before an upper house election that could punish a minority government already on the back foot after an underwhelming performance in last year's general vote. "With rice costing twice as much - even 2.5 times as much in some regions - as last year, it's very important to steady that and stabilise the market,' Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said in the same parliamentary session on Monday. Retailers including Aeon Co Ltd. and Pan Pacific International Holdings Corp., the parent company of popular discount store Don Quijote, started selling the stockpiled rice over the weekend, according to statements from both companies. Aeon priced its five kilogramme bag at just under ¥2,000 (US$13.97) before tax, well below the ¥4,200 per bag average consumers are seeing at storefronts. The government auctioned off batches of stockpiled rice starting in February, but prices have continued to hit record highs. Koizumi announced last week that the most recent release would be sold at a fixed price instead of auctioned, and bypass the usual supply chain, which includes rice collection agencies and wholesalers. - Bloomberg
Scotsman
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
9 school playground crazes and toys of the 1990s
1 . Tamagotchis If keeping up with your homework wasn't enough, spare a thought for 90s schoolchildren, who also had to contend with keeping their electronic pets alive. Tamagotchis, meaning 'egg watch' in Japanese, burst onto the scene in 1996 and they were soon in the pockets of children around the globe. Youngsters had to care for their 'pets' by feeding them, often with a hamburger or piece of cake, playing games with them, disciplining them and cleaning up after them. The fact that earlier versions couldn't be paused meant they were often taken to school, where pupils could compare how their creatures were getting on. | JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images Photo: JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images
Scotsman
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
9 school playground crazes and toys of the 1990s
1 . Tamagotchis If keeping up with your homework wasn't enough, spare a thought for 90s schoolchildren, who also had to contend with keeping their electronic pets alive. Tamagotchis, meaning 'egg watch' in Japanese, burst onto the scene in 1996 and they were soon in the pockets of children around the globe. Youngsters had to care for their 'pets' by feeding them, often with a hamburger or piece of cake, playing games with them, disciplining them and cleaning up after them. The fact that earlier versions couldn't be paused meant they were often taken to school, where pupils could compare how their creatures were getting on. | JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images Photo: JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images
