{"id":77953,"date":"2026-08-21T08:41:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/77953\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T08:41:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:41:21","slug":"japan-secretly-executes-arsonist-sunao-takami-for-deadly-osaka-gaming-venue-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/77953\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan secretly executes arsonist Sunao Takami for deadly Osaka gaming venue fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n

Japan<\/a> has executed a man in secret over a fatal fire<\/a> at an Osaka<\/a> gaming venue.<\/p>\n

The Justice Ministry has announced that Sunao Takami, 58, was hanged on Friday.<\/p>\n

Takami was earlier convicted of killing five people at a pachinko parlour \u2013 a neon-lit gaming space filled with pinball-like machines \u2013 in 2009.<\/p>\n

He spread gasoline and threw a lit match to ignite a blaze that engulfed the building, Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said.<\/p>\n

Ten other people were injured in the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt caused extremely serious outcomes and dealt a major shock and fear to the society,\u201d Mr Hiraguchi said at a news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201dThe victims whose lives were taken away must have felt unimaginable pain and fear, and those who suffered injuries … were forced to live with long-term effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe fire at an Osaka pachinko parlour killed five people and injured 10 others<\/p>\n

Takami was convicted of murder, attempted murder, and arson.<\/p>\n

He was sentenced to death in 2011, with a subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court<\/a> rejected in 2016.<\/p>\n

Mr Hiraguchi said that he had ordered Takami\u2019s execution \u201cafter careful and thorough considerations\u201d.<\/p>\n

Japan now has 100 people on death row, including 43 seeking retrials.<\/p>\n

The country has faced growing criticism over its use of the death penalty, as a majority of the international community has abolished capital punishment. <\/p>\n

Japan and the United States are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialised nations, which also includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the UK, that put people to death.<\/p>\n

Calls to abolish capital punishment or increase transparency have grown after the 2024 acquittal of the world\u2019s longest-serving death-row inmate, Iwao Hakamada.<\/p>\n

\"JusticeJustice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi announced on Friday that Takami had been hanged earlier that day<\/p>\n

Executions are carried out in secrecy in Japan, and prisoners are not informed of their fate until the morning of their hanging.<\/p>\n

Since 2007, Japan has begun disclosing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosures are still limited.<\/p>\n

Mr Hiraguchi said that he has no intention to change the ongoing practice, saying that disclosure of additional details would disturb the mental state of the death-row inmates. <\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s hanging was the first by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi\u2019s government and comes during a parliamentary recess. <\/p>\n

The move was criticised as a tactic to avoid public debate, but Mr Hiraguchi denied that it was intentional.<\/p>\n

In June 2025, Japan executed a man known as the \u201cTwitter killer\u201d, who was convicted of killing and dismembering nine people in his apartment near Tokyo in 2017.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s crime rate is relatively low, but it has seen some high-profile mass killings in recent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8,33,49989,22647],"class_list":["post-77953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-japan","tag-nihon","tag-square","tag-vertical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}