Japan has executed a man known as the “Twitter killer” for the brutal murders of nine people he met online, marking the country’s first use of the death penalty in two years.
Takahiro Shiraishi, 33, was hanged on Friday after being convicted of murdering and dismembering nine individuals, mostly young women, whom he lured via Twitter, now known as X, in 2017.
Shiraishi admitted to the killings, having approached vulnerable users on the platform who had expressed suicidal thoughts. He offered to help them die, before bringing them to his apartment near Tokyo, where he killed and mutilated them. The victims were aged between 15 and 26.
According to media reports, Shiraishi stored body parts in coolers around his flat and disposed of others in rubbish dumps. Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki confirmed the execution in a press briefing, describing the crimes as “robbery, rape, murder, destruction of a corpse and abandonment of a corpse.”
“Nine victims were beaten and strangled, killed, robbed, and then mutilated with parts of their bodies concealed in boxes, and parts discarded in a garbage dump,” Suzuki said. “After much careful consideration, I ordered the execution.”
Twitter killer sentenced to death in 2020
Shiraishi was sentenced to death in 2020 after pleading guilty. His case drew widespread public and media attention due to the horrifying nature of his crimes and the way he exploited social media to find his victims.
Japan is one of only two G7 nations, the other being the United States, that still practises capital punishment. The country carries out executions by hanging, often in complete secrecy.
There is significant public support for the death penalty in Japan. A 2024 government survey of 1,800 people revealed that 83% consider it “unavoidable”.
However, the system has come under heavy criticism from human rights groups for its lack of transparency and psychological toll on death row inmates. Executions are carried out without prior warning, typically in the early morning, with prisoners informed only hours before.
Legally, executions must take place within six months of a final verdict, once all appeals have been exhausted. In practice, however, inmates often wait in solitary confinement for years, sometimes decades, with no indication of when their sentence will be carried out.
As of December 2023, 107 prisoners remained on death row in Japan, according to the Justice Ministry.
The last execution prior to Shiraishi’s was in 2022, when Tomohiro Kato was hanged for a 2008 attack in Tokyo’s Akihabara district. Kato killed seven people after ploughing a rented two-tonne truck into a crowd before embarking on a stabbing spree.
Japan’s most high-profile mass execution in recent history took place in 2018, when Shoko Asahara and 12 members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult were hanged. The group was responsible for the 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo’s subway, which killed 14 people and injured thousands.
Despite growing international pressure to abolish the death penalty, Japan remains firm in its position, insisting it is a necessary deterrent for the most heinous crimes.
