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.
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@nami.org.
