Takahiro Shiraishi Executed for Dismembering Nine People
Twitter Killer executed: Japan executed Takahiro Shiraishi in 2020 after convicting him of murdering and mutilating nine people he lured via social media. Most of his victims were young women he found on Twitter who had stated that they intended to commit suicide.
The execution was carried out Friday at the Tokyo Detention House, Japan’s Justice Ministry confirmed.
Cold-Storage Horror in Suburban Tokyo
Shiraishi’s crimes shocked Japan in 2017. Authorities found the dismembered remains of eight women and one man stored in cold boxes. Most of the women were teenagers or in their 20s. He raped and killed many of them, offering to help them die by suicide. He also murdered one woman’s boyfriend to silence him.
His horrific acts earned him the moniker “Twitter Killer.”
Justice Minister Defends Capital Punishment
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, who signed the execution order, called the crime “an extreme threat to public safety” and said that it deeply disturbed Japanese society. At a press conference, he defended Japan’s continued use of the death penalty, citing overwhelming public support for executions.
“I believe it is not appropriate to abolish execution,” Suzuki said, referencing rising concern over violent crime.
Japan remains one of only two G7 nations, along with the U.S., that still enforce capital punishment.
Secret execution raises concerns about transparency.
Shiraishi was hung in secret, following the Japanese practice of not informing convicts of their execution until the same day. Even though Japan began revealing names and other information in 2007, more transparency is still lacking.
49 of the 105 death row convicts in Japan are requesting retrials.
His execution follows growing demands for transparency and an end to the death penalty, especially after courts acquitted Iwao Hakamada—the world’s longest-serving death row inmate—in 2023.
A Low-Crime, High-Profile Killing Nation
Japan still has a low crime rate, but in recent years, there have been an alarming number of mass murders there. A court sentenced to death the man who killed seven people in Tokyo’s Akihabara neighborhood, and officials executed him in July 2022—just before Shiraishi’s execution.
One of the most horrific and well-known serial homicides in recent Japanese history is still Shiraishi’s case.
Source: AP News