Latest news with #TakahiroShiraishi
CTV News
33 minutes ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Japan executes man convicted of murder for killing and dismembering 9 people in his apartment
Takahiro Shiraishi leaves a police station in Hachioji, suburbs of Tokyo, in November 2017. (Takuya Inaba/Kyodo News via AP, File) TOKYO — A man convicted of murder for killing and dismembering nine people in his apartment near Tokyo was executed Friday, Japan's Justice Ministry said. Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the 'Twitter killer,' was sentenced to death in 2020 for the killings in 2017 of the nine victims, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media. He was also convicted of sexually abusing female victims. Police arrested him later that year after finding the bodies of eight teenage girls and women as well as one man in cold-storage cases in his apartment. Investigators said Shiraishi approached the victims via Twitter, offering to assist them with their suicidal wishes. He killed the three teenage girls and five women after raping them. He also killed the boyfriend of one of the women to silence him. 'The case caused the extremely serious outcomes and dealt a major shockwave and unease to the society,' Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki told an emergency news conference. He said he signed the execution earlier this week, but did not witness Shiraishi's hanging. The execution was carried out as calls grow to abolish capital punishment or increase transparency in Japan after the acquittal of the world's longest-serving death row inmate Iwao Hakamada last year. Suzuki justified the need for the execution in Japan, noting a recent government survey shows an overwhelming majority of the public still supports capital punishment, though opposition has somewhat increased. 'I believe it is not appropriate to abolish execution,' Suzuki said, adding there is growing concern about serious crime. Shiraishi was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House in secrecy with nothing disclosed until the execution was done. Japan now has 105 people on death row, including 49 seeking retrials, Suzuki said. Executions are carried out in secrecy in Japan, where prisoners are not even informed of their fate until the morning of their hanging. Since 2007, Japan has begun disclosing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosures are still limited. Japan and the U.S. are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that retain capital punishment. Japan's most recent execution, in July 2022, was of a man who killed seven people in a vehicle crash and stabbing rampage in a crowded Tokyo shopping district of Akihabara in 2018. Japan's crime rate is relatively low, but it has seen some high-profile mass killings in recent years. Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press
Washington Post
40 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Japan executes ‘Twitter killer' who killed and dismembered nine
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 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.
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Japan executes man dubbed the "Twitter killer," convicted serial killer who murdered and dismembered 9 people
Japan on Friday executed a man dubbed the "Twitter killer" who murdered and dismembered nine people he met online, in the nation's first enactment of the death penalty since 2022. Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, was hanged for killing his young victims, all but one of whom were women, after contacting them on the social media platform now called X. He had targeted users who posted about taking their own life, telling them he could help them in their plans, or even die alongside them. According to the BBC, his Twitter profile contained the words: "I want to help people who are really in pain. Please DM [direct message] me anytime." He killed the three teenage girls and five women after raping them. He also killed the boyfriend of one of the women to silence him, the Associated Press reported. Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said Shiraishi's crimes, carried out in 2017, included "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 told reporters in Tokyo. Takahiro Shiraishi covers his face inside a police car in Tokyo, in this photo taken by Kyodo November 2017 and released by Kyodo December 15, 2020. KYODO / REUTERS Nine dismembered bodies were found in coolers and tool boxes when officers visited his flat, which was dubbed by media outlets as a "house of horrors," the BBC reported. Shiraishi acted to satisfy "his own sexual and financial desires" and the murders "caused great shock and anxiety to society," Suzuki said. "After much careful consideration, I ordered the execution." Japan and the United States are the only two G7 countries to still use capital punishment, and there is strong support for the practice among the Japanese public, surveys show. There was one execution in 2022, three in 2021, three in 2019 and 15 in 2018, the justice ministry told AFP. Shiraishi was sentenced to death in 2020 for the murders of his nine victims, aged between 15 and 26. After luring them to his small home near the capital, he stashed parts of their bodies around the apartment in coolers and toolboxes sprinkled with cat litter in a bid to hide the evidence. His lawyers had argued Shiraishi should receive a prison sentence rather than be executed because his victims had expressed suicidal thoughts and so had consented to die. But a judge dismissed that argument, calling Shiraishi's crimes "cunning and cruel", reports said at the time. "The dignity of the victims was trampled upon," the judge had said, adding that Shiraishi had preyed upon people who were "mentally fragile". The grisly murders were discovered in autumn 2017 by police investigating the disappearance of a 23-year-old woman who had reportedly tweeted about wanting to kill herself. Her brother gained access to her Twitter account and eventually led police to Shiraishi's residence, where investigators found dismembered body parts. Executions in Japan Executions are always done by hanging in Japan, where around 100 death row prisoners are waiting for their sentences to be carried out. Nearly half are seeking a retrial, Suzuki said Friday. Executions are carried out in secrecy, where prisoners are not even informed of their fate until the morning of their hanging, according to the Associated Press. Japanese law stipulates that executions must be carried out within six months of a verdict after appeals are exhausted. In reality, however, most inmates are left on tenterhooks in solitary confinement for years, and sometimes decades. There is widespread criticism of the system and the government's lack of transparency over the practice. Shiraishi's execution was the first under Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's administration, the Japan Times reported. In 2022, Tomohiro Kato was hanged for an attack that killed seven people in 2008, when he rammed a rented two-ton truck into a crowd in Tokyo and went on a stabbing spree. The high-profile executions of the guru Shoko Asahara and 12 former members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult took place in 2018. Aum Shinrikyo orchestrated the 1995 sarin gas attacks on Tokyo's subway system, killing 14 people and sickening thousands more. If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or suicidal crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@
BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Japan hangs 'Twitter killer' in first execution since 2022
Japan has executed a man who killed nine people after contacting them on social media, the first use of capital punishment in the country in nearly three years. Takahiro Shiraishi had been sentenced to death for his 2017 strangling and dismembering of eight women and one man in his apartment in Zama city in Kanagawa near Tokyo. He was dubbed the "Twitter killer" as he contacted victims via the social media platform. Advertisement 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 andunrest to society." It followed the execution in July 2022 of a man who went on a stabbing rampage in Tokyo's shopping district Akihabara in 2008. World Japan's agriculture minister resigns after remark... Read More It was also the first time a death penalty was carried out since prime minister Shigeru Ishiba's government was inaugurated last October. In September last year, a Japanese court acquitted Iwao Hakamada, who had spent the world's longest time on death row after a wrongful conviction for crimes committed nearly 60 years ago. Capital punishment is carried out by hanging in Japan and prisoners are notified of their execution hours before it is carried out, which has long been decried by human rights groups for the stress it puts on death-row prisoners. "It is not appropriate to abolish the death penalty while these violent crimes are still being committed," Suzuki told a press conference. There are currently 105 death row inmates in Japan, he added.
Daily Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Daily Telegraph
Japan executes ‘Twitter killer' Takahiro Shiraishi, who dismembered nine victims he found on social media
Don't miss out on the headlines from World. Followed categories will be added to My News. Japan has executed Takahiro Shiraishi, the man infamously known as the 'Twitter killer,' who was convicted of murdering and dismembering nine people after contacting them through social media. The 34-year-old was hanged on Friday at the Tokyo Detention House. It marked the country's first execution since July 2022. He had been sentenced to death in 2020 after pleading guilty to killing eight women and one man between August and October 2017. Shiraishi was arrested after police searched his apartment in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, following the disappearance of a 23-year-old woman who had expressed suicidal thoughts on social media. Inside his residence, authorities discovered three cooler boxes and five containers filled with human remains. Among the macabre findings were heads and bones stripped of flesh. Takahiro Shiraishi covering his face with his hands as he is transported to the prosecutor's office from a police station in Tokyo. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) He was infamously known as the 'Twitter killer', who was convicted of murdering and dismembering nine people after contacting them through social media. AFP PHOTO / JIJI PRESS / STR / Japan OUT The case sent shockwaves across Japan and brought national attention to the dangers of social media platforms being used to exploit vulnerable individuals. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT The case sent shockwaves across Japan and brought national attention to the dangers of social media platforms being used to exploit vulnerable individuals. Shiraishi had reached out to victims aged between 15 and 26 who had posted online about suicidal thoughts. Using an alias that roughly translated to 'hangman,' he lured them to his apartment under the pretence of helping them die, according to the Jiji news agency. In court, Shiraishi admitted to murdering the victims to fulfil his own sexual desires, as reported by NHK and TV Asahi. He was found guilty of murder, rape, and dismemberment, and stored the remains in his home. His lawyer initially appealed the death sentence, but the appeal was later withdrawn. Victim, 23-year-old Aiko Tamura, from Hachioji Tokyo city Japan. In court, Shiraishi admitted to murdering the victims to fulfil his own sexual desires. / AFP PHOTO / JIJI PRESS / STR / Japan OUT 'This case, driven by selfish motives such as sexual and financial gratification, resulted in the deaths of nine individuals over two months – a deeply serious incident that has caused shock and anxiety across society. I understand it is an especially heartbreaking case for both the victims and their families,' Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said during a press conference on Friday. Suzuki confirmed that he had signed the execution order after 'careful and deliberate consideration of all factors.' In Japan, executions by hanging are carried out in secrecy, with dates not disclosed in advance. Families and legal representatives are typically notified only after the execution has occurred. Originally published as Japan executes 'Twitter killer' Takahiro Shiraishi, who dismembered nine victims he found on social media
