Japan executes ‘Twitter killer' who killed and dismembered nine

Washington Post

4 hours ago

A man convicted of murdering nine people has been executed in the first use of the death penalty in Japan since 2022, the country's minister of justice said at a news conference Friday.
Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, was dubbed the country's 'Twitter killer' and sentenced to death in December 2020 after being arrested in 2017 for strangling and dismembering nine people, including several young women and girls contemplating suicide, whom he lured to his apartment using social media.
Once he lured them to his home, he strangled them, sexually assaulted and robbed some of them, and cut up their corpses, The Washington Post previously reported. Eight of his victims were female, including girls aged 15 and 17. He also killed the male acquaintance of one victim, who had confronted him about the woman's disappearance.
Shiraishi had called himself '@hangingpro' on one of his five Twitter accounts and offered to help people in pain, tweeting statements such as: 'If you cannot help yourself, I can help you,' public prosecutors revealed during the trial.
Japanese Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki told media at a news conference Friday the execution had been carried out after 'careful and deliberate consideration.'
'This case was driven by the perpetrator's sexual and monetary desires — truly selfish motives,' Suzuki said, adding that the 'extremely grave' killings had caused shock and anxiety in Japan.
Suzuki said he signed the order for the execution on Monday but declined to provide further details, including when Shiraishi had been notified.
Japan usually reserves the death penalty for those convicted of multiple murders, with executions by hanging. It was carried out at the Tokyo Detention House, Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported.
The death is the first execution carried out by Japan's government since 2022, Suzuki said, adding that popular opinion was taken into account in his decision to order the execution. A majority of people in Japan supported the death penalty, he said, citing government polls.
Shiraishi was first arrested in 2017 after police tracked him down when the brother of one of his victims found messages from him in her Twitter account. Police found body parts in cooler boxes and other containers in his apartment.
During his trial, Shiraishi said he had not been interested in suicide, but targeted people who had written about it on social media because it was 'easier' to 'manipulate them to my way of thinking,' Japanese media reported at the time.
At the time, the case prompted Twitter, now known as X, to introduce rules against promoting or encouraging suicide and social harm. Japan's government also expanded telephone and online support for people contemplating suicide.
Suzuki said Friday 105 people remain on death row in Japan. However, questions have been raised about the use of capital punishment in the country following the 2024 exoneration of Iwao Hakamata, 89, who was arrested in 1966 and spent more than four decades on death row over the murder of a family of four. He was recognized as the world's longest serving prisoner on death row before his acquittal, which came after a ruling found part of the evidence against him had been fabricated and he was effectively forced into a false confession, Japan's Kyodo News reported.
Human Rights Watch said in a January 2025 report the case highlighted how the country's criminal is blighted by 'hostage justice' — where lengthy interrogations can lead to false confessions — and is badly in need of reform. 'The Japanese government should end so-called hostage justice, and capital punishment,' Kanae Doi, the Japan director at the human rights agency said in a statement at the time.
If you or someone you know needs help, visit 988lifeline.org or call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. In Japan, the Health Ministry website has contacts for people to find support by phone or online.