Japan executes man who killed five in Pachinko parlour fire
Japan has executed a man who killed five people in a gaming parlour fire in 2009, making this the first time in more than a year that the country has enacted the death sentence. Sunao Takami, 58, had doused the pachinko gaming parlour near his home in Osaka with gasoline and set it alight, killing four customers and one employee.
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Key Facts
- Fact 1: Japan has executed a man who killed five people in a gaming parlour fire in 2009, making this the first time in more than a year that the country has enacted the death sentence.
- Fact 2: Sunao Takami, 58, had doused the pachinko gaming parlour near his home in Osaka with gasoline and set it alight, killing four customers and one employee.
- Fact 3: A six-member jury and a panel of three judges rejected the defence's argument that Takami was mentally ill at the time of the crime, and sentenced him to hang in 2011.
- Fact 4: Japan and the United States are the only G7 countries that still impose capital punishment, with death row prisoners in Japan typically being notified of their hanging just a few hours in advance.
Japan has executed a man who killed five people in a gaming parlour fire in 2009, making this the first time in more than a year that the country has enacted the death sentence. Sunao Takami, 58, had doused the pachinko gaming parlour near his home in Osaka with gasoline and set it alight, killing four customers and one employee.
A six-member jury and a panel of three judges rejected the defence's argument that Takami was mentally ill at the time of the crime, and sentenced him to hang in 2011. Japan and the United States are the only G7 countries that still impose capital punishment, with death row prisoners in Japan typically being notified of their hanging just a few hours in advance. "We ordered the execution after careful and thorough consideration," Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said on Friday.
(Original synthesis pending human/AI review — generated by the stub provider by selecting real sentences from the source material, not by writing new analysis or commentary.)
Original source: BBC News World
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