Takahiro Shiraishi was executed for the killings in 2017 of nine victims, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media.

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.

Japan has executed a man dubbed the “Twitter killer,” who was convicted of murdering and dismembering nine people, mostly women, in the country’s first use of capital punishment in nearly three years.