Japan Executes Man for 2017 Serial Murders in Zama

   Tokyo, June 27 (Jiji Press)--Japan on Friday executed a 34-year-old man convicted for murdering nine people in his apartment in the city of Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, in 2017, the Justice Ministry said.
   Takahiro Shiraishi was executed after about four and a half years since his death penalty was finalized.
   It was the first execution in the country in two years and 11 months since Tomohiro Kato was executed at the age of 39 in July 2022 over a fatal rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara district in 2008, and the first under the administration of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
   The two years and 11 months without an execution was the longest since the ministry began announcing executions on the day of execution in 1998, according to the ministry. The number of death-row inmates in the country now stands at 105.
   The Zama incident "caused a great shock and a sense of anxiety in society as it led to extremely serious consequences in which nine precious lives were taken in two months due to selfish reasons to satisfy the killer's own sexual and financial desires," Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said at a press conference. He ordered the execution on Monday.

(2025/06/27-14:58)

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