Japan executes death row inmate, 1st since Takaichi took office

Japan on Friday hanged a man convicted of killing five people in an arson attack on a pachinko parlor in the western Japanese city of Osaka in 2009, the justice minister said, making it the first execution under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.Sunao Takami, 58, was the first person to be executed in Japan since June 2025.Takami poured gasoline on the floor of the pachinko parlor on July 5, 2009, in an attack that also injured 10 people. His death sentence was finalized in 2016.During his trial, Takami's defense counsel argued that he had been influenced by "delusions caused by a mental illnes…READ FULL ARTICLE