“Twitter killer” executed in Japan

Serial killer Takahiro Shiraishi has been executed in Japan for murdering and dismembering nine people in his apartment, mostly vulnerable young women whom he lured using Twitter.

Shiraishi, 34, was executed by hanging on Friday (June 27th), marking the first use of capital punishment in Japan in almost three years.

He was sentenced to death in 2020 for the killings in 2017 of the nine victims, with the death penalty finalized in 2021, after he withdrew an appeal.

Dubbed the “Twitter killer” in Japan, Shiraishi was found guilty of murdering, dismembering, and storing the bodies of his nine victims in his apartment near Tokyo.

Shiraishi targeted victims who had expressed suicidal thoughts through his Twitter account, which loosely translates as “hangman.” He offered to assist victims with their suicidal wishes.

Eight of his victims were women, including teenagers, whom he raped before killing. Shiraishi also killed a boyfriend of one of the victims to silence him. In addition to murder, he was also convicted of sexual assault and stealing cash.

“I ordered the execution after careful and deliberate consideration," Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said during a press conference to announce the hanging, which comes amid a debate in Japan over the country’s capital punishment system and calls to abolish it.

Questions about the system were raised after the acquittal of 89-year-old Iwao Hakamada, the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, last year.

Hakamada was freed after 56 years when a retrial found that police had falsified and planted evidence against him in a 1966 quadruple murder case.

Despite pressure from human rights organizations and the international community, Japan and the US are the only G7 countries that retain capital punishment. The government insists the death penalty is necessary for the most violent crimes.

"It is not appropriate to abolish the death penalty while these violent crimes are still being committed," Justice Minister Suzuki said.

According to government surveys, over 80% of those polled support capital punishment, calling the practice “unavoidable.” There are currently 105 inmates on death row in Japan. 49 of whom have filed retrial requests.