Japan Executes Man for 2009 Pachinko Parlor Arson That Killed Five

Japan hanged a 58-year-old man on Friday for setting fire to a pachinko parlor in Osaka in 2009, killing five people and injuring ten others.

Sunao Takami poured gasoline inside the crowded gaming hall near his home and set it alight. Four customers and one employee died. A six-member jury and three judges rejected his claim of mental illness and sentenced him to death in 2011.

Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said he ordered the execution after careful and thorough consideration. The crime caused extremely serious outcomes and dealt a major shock and fear to society, he told a news conference. The victims must have felt unimaginable pain and fear, and those injured continue to live with long-term effects.

The hanging took place at the Osaka Detention House. It is the first execution carried out under the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and the first in Japan since June 2025, when Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the Twitter killer, was executed for murdering nine people.

Japan and the United States remain the only G7 countries that retain capital punishment. Death-row inmates in Japan are typically informed of their execution only hours in advance. After Friday’s hanging, 100 prisoners remain under finalized death sentences.

Surveys consistently show majority public support for the death penalty in Japan, though international human-rights groups and some domestic campaigners continue to call for abolition or greater transparency in the process.

Hiraguchi denied that the timing during a parliamentary recess was intended to avoid debate. The ministry said the decision followed standard procedures.

Takami had been on death row for 15 years. The case remains one of the more prominent arson-murder convictions of the past two decades in Japan.