Japan executes pachinko parlour arsonist

TOKYO: Japan executed on Friday (Aug 21) a man convicted of an arson attack on a pachinko parlour in 2009 that killed five people, authorities said.It was Japan's first hanging since Takahiro Shiraishi, the "Twitter killer" who murdered and dismembered nine people, was put to death in June 2025.Sunao Takami, the man executed on Friday, doused a pachinko parlour - a popular game mixing pinball and a slot machine using small steel balls - near his home in Osaka with petrol and set it on fire, killing four customers and one employee.Japan and the United States are the only two G7 countries to still use capital punishment, and surveys suggest there is strong support among the Japanese public. In a 2024 government survey, 83 per cent saw the death penalty as "unavoidable", although it also foun