A man convicted of murder for killing and dismembering nine people in his apartment near Tokyo was executed Friday, Japan’s Justice Ministry said.

Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the ‘Twitter killer,’ was sentenced to death in 2020 for murdering nine victims in 2017, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media. 

He was also convicted of sexually abusing his female victims.

Police arrested him later that year after finding the bodies of eight teenage girls and women, as well as one man, in cold-storage cases in his apartment.

Investigators said Shiraishi approached the victims via Twitter, offering to assist them with their suicidal wishes. 

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 case caused extremely serious outcomes and dealt a major shockwave and unease to society,’ Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki told an emergency news conference. 

He said he signed the execution earlier this week, but did not witness Shiraishi´s hanging.

The execution was carried out as calls grow to abolish capital punishment or increase transparency in Japan after the acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death row inmate Iwao Hakamada last year.

Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the ‘ Twitter killer,’ was sentenced to death in 2020 for murdering nine victims in 2017

Takahiro Shiraishi leaves a police station in Hachioji, suburbs of Tokyo, in November 2017

The severed body parts of nine people were found in Shiraishi’s apartment on October 31, 2017 in Zama, Kanagawa, Japan

On Twitter – the social media platform he used to reach out to potential victims – his profile featured a manga cartoon drawing showing a man whose neck and wrist are scarred, wearing a rope around his neck

Shiraishi styled himself as a valiant helper, providing a way out for those with suicidal thoughts or those who had attempted suicide and failed. 

On Twitter – the social media platform he used to reach out to potential victims – his profile featured a manga cartoon drawing showing a man whose neck and wrist are scarred, wearing a rope around his neck.

The profile bio described his expertise in hanging.

‘I want to help people who are really in pain. Please DM me anytime,’ it read.

‘There must be many people in society who are suffering after attempting suicides, though their cases are not reported in the news. I want to help such people.’

He also worked to ensure his victims severed ties with friends and family members in advance of meeting them.

‘It is not good to tell friends, family members and social networking sites that you are going to die before committing suicide,’ he wrote in one post. 

Shiraishi was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House in secrecy, with nothing disclosed until the execution was done.

Japan now has 105 people on death row, including 49 seeking retrials, Suzuki said.

Executions are carried out in secrecy in Japan, where prisoners are not even informed of their fate until the morning of their hanging.

Since 2007, Japan has begun disclosing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosures are still limited.

Japan and the US are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialised nations (G7) that retain capital punishment.

The Asian nation’s crime rate is relatively low, but it has seen some high-profile mass killings in recent years. 

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.

Three died on death row last year while awaiting the penalty. 

Journalists stand outside the grey Tokyo Detention House in Katsushika, November 20, 2018. There is a chilling theatrical element to how the East Asian country hangs the condemned

A glass window separates a viewing platform from the trapdoor where prisoners are hanged

Prisoners walk past a Buddhist statue of Kannon on the way in, associated with compassion

From the outside, the Tokyo Detention House looks like any other tall, austere buildings native to Katsushika City. 

It is guarded only by a low wire fence and enjoys sprawling parks dotted with trees to blend in with the surrounding landscape.

But the interior is sparsely decorated and simple – a cold and dull environment for Japan’s most dangerous criminals awaiting the death penalty.

There is a chilling theatrical element to how the East Asian country hangs the condemned.

The execution takes place on a bright red square in front of a viewing platform separated by a large glass window and bright blue curtains.

Prisoners pass by a small gold statue of Kannon as they enter, a Buddhist bodhisattva associated with compassion.

Rare notes from inside the sterile centre confirm prisoners are often told only an hour before they are due to take the stage on the day of their execution – a decision the UN Committee against Torture claimed causes the families additional stress.

Witnesses have described their horror at watching the mechanical process by which officials pull levers to drop a prisoner, blindfolded and hooded, through the floor of the execution room into a chamber below, where medics confirm their death and wipe the lifeless body down.

Following the sentencing of Yuki Endo, a 21-year-old who murdered the parents of a girl who rejected him three years prior, in January 2024, rights groups fear that Japan’s cold and clinical execution practices are making a comeback in a shocking reversal of Western trends.

But Justice Minister Suzuki this week justified the need for the execution in Japan, noting a recent government survey shows an overwhelming majority of the public still supports capital punishment, though opposition has somewhat increased.

‘I believe it is not appropriate to abolish execution,’ Suzuki said, adding that there is growing concern about serious crime.