In brief
On June 27, 2025, Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, was executed at the Tokyo Detention House after being convicted of the serial killings of nine people in a horrific two-month spree in 2017. The case shocked Japan, a country known for its low crime rates, when police discovered the dismembered remains of eight women and a man in coolers filled with cat litter to disguise the odor. Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki announced that the execution was Japan’s first in nearly three years and stated that the order was signed after careful consideration of the tragedy's impact on the victims' families. Shiraishi was sentenced to death in 2020, just over four years before his execution, which is notably shorter than the typical duration for condemned prisoners on death row.
