A man dubbed the “Twitter killer” has been executed in Japan for murdering and dismembering nine people in his flat.
Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House after being convicted of the brutal killings which took place in 2017 at his apartment south west of Tokyo.
Using a handle which loosely translates as “hangman,” Shiraishi invited his nine victims, most of whom were suicidal, to his Zama home by promising to help them die, according to Jiji news agency.
Eight women, aged between 15 and 26, and one man, were found dismembered in cooler boxes in 2017. He was also convicted of sexually abusing female victims.
Three cooler boxes and five containers were found in Shiraishi’s room, containing human heads and bones with the flesh scraped off, TV Asahi reported at the time, citing police sources.
He killed the eight women, including teenagers, after raping them, and also killed a boyfriend of one of the women to silence him.
Shiraishi told police that he dismembered the bodies in his bathroom, which according to online descriptions of the apartment building where he lived was a plastic-sealed “unit bath.”
He put out some of the body parts as garbage, Kyodo News agency reported, with neighbours noticing a “foul” smell coming from his home.
His execution was the first use of capital punishment in the country in nearly three years and was carried out as calls grow to abolish it in Japan since the acquittal of the world's longest-serving death-row inmate Iwao Hakamada.
He was freed after 56 years on death row, following a retrial which heard police had falsified and planted evidence against him over the 1966 murders of his boss, wife and two children.
Following news of the execution, the father of one of Shiraishi’s victims told NHK that he’d rather have seen him “spend his life reflecting on the crimes he committed, than simply losing it through death penalty.”
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, who authorised Shiraishi's hanging, said he made the decision after careful examination, taking into account the convict's “extremely selfish” motive for crimes that “caused great shock and unrest to society”.
“It is not appropriate to abolish the death penalty while these violent crimes are still being committed,” Mr Suzuki said.
The death penalty in Japan is delivered by hanging, with execution dates not made public until after the penalty is carried out.
Executions are shrouded in secrecy with little to no warning, and families and lawyers are usually notified only after the execution has taken place.
Japan’s suicide rate ranks among the world’s highest. Following a recent decline, the number has climbed back this year as people were hit by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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