Japan executes pachinko arsonist Sunao Takami in first hanging under Sanae Takaichi
Japan executed 58-year-old Sunao Takami on Friday morning for a 2009 Osaka pachinko parlour arson attack that killed five people, marking the country's first hanging under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
First execution under Prime Minister Takaichi
Japan executed 58-year-old Sunao Takami on Friday morning, marking the country's first execution under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi since her administration took office in October 2025. Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi announced the hanging at a press conference in Tokyo, confirming that the order followed extensive internal review. The execution ended a pause of more than a year in capital punishment, with the previous execution taking place in June 2025 when serial killer Takahiro Shiraishi was hanged for murdering nine people. Japan and the United States remain the only two members of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations that maintain capital punishment.
As justice minister, I have ordered an execution after careful and thorough considerations.
The 2009 Osaka parlour attack and legal proceedings
Takami was convicted of murder, attempted murder, and arson for an attack on a crowded pachinko parlour near his residence in Osaka in 2009. During the incident, Takami poured gasoline across the gaming hall and ignited it with a lit match, causing a blaze that killed four customers and one employee while injuring 10 other people. In 2011, a panel at the Osaka District Court comprising six citizen lay judges and three professional judges rejected defense arguments that Takami acted under severe delusions and mental illness. The court sentenced him to death, a decision that the Supreme Court of Japan affirmed in 2016 following unsuccessful appeals.
- Takami sets fire to an Osaka pachinko parlour, killing five people and injuring 10
- Osaka District Court rejects mental illness claims and sentences Takami to death
- Supreme Court of Japan rejects final appeals and upholds the death penalty
- Takami is executed by hanging in Japan
Death row conditions and public opinion
Following Takami's execution, 100 inmates remain on death row across Japan, including 43 who have filed petitions seeking retrials. Under Japanese penal procedures, condemned prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for years and receive notice of their hanging only hours before the sentence is carried out in the morning. Hiraguchi defended these secrecy protocols, stating that releasing advance information or operational details would disturb the mental stability of inmates. Domestic backing for the penalty remains high among the Japanese electorate, with government polling showing sustained majority support.
- View death penalty as unavoidable
- 83 %
- Support abolition
- 17 %
Scrutiny over convictions and criminal justice
Scrutiny of Japan's criminal justice system increased following the 2024 exoneration of Iwao Hakamada, who had spent more than 45 years on death row after a 1968 conviction for a quadruple murder. A court cleared Hakamada at age 88 after finding that police and prosecutors had fabricated evidence and coerced a confession through brutal interrogations. While government surveys show sustained public endorsement of capital punishment as an unavoidable measure, support for abolition climbed to 17% in 2024, up from 9% five years earlier. Hiraguchi stated that capital punishment affects the core of the judicial system and requires careful deliberation, noting that abolishing the sentence is not appropriate given the persistence of heinous crimes.
It caused extremely serious outcomes and dealt a major shock and fear to the society.
