Japan executes man who killed five in Pachinko parlour fire

What the report says

Japan has carried out its first execution in more than a year, hanging Sunao Takami, the man convicted of killing five people in a 2009 arson attack at a pachinko gaming parlour near Osaka. According to BBC World News, Takami was 58 and had poured gasoline on the venue before setting it on fire, killing four customers and one employee.

The case had moved through Japan’s courts years earlier. BBC World News reported that a six-member jury and a panel of three judges rejected the defence claim that Takami was mentally ill at the time of the attack, and he was sentenced to death in 2011. Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said the execution was ordered after “careful and thorough consideration,” according to the report.

The execution is notable because Japan and the United States are the only G7 countries that still retain capital punishment. BBC World News also noted that this was the first execution under the Takaichi administration and the first since June 2025, when Japan executed Takahiro Shiraishi. Rights groups have long criticised Japan’s death penalty system for limited transparency and the conditions on death row, while public support for capital punishment remains strong in surveys, according to the report.