Japan Hangs ‘Twitter Killer’ Who Killed Nine People ‘For His Own Desires’

New Delhi: Japan on Friday executed Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the “Twitter killer,” for the murder and butchering of nine people he met online, marking the country’s first use of the death penalty since 2022.   

Shiraishi, 34, the "Twitter Killer" was hanged for killing his young victims, all but one of whom were women, after contacting them on the social media platform now called X. He had targeted users who posted about taking their own lives, telling them he could help them in their plans, or even die alongside them.    

Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said Shiraishi's crimes, carried out in 2017, included "robbery, rape, murder... destruction of a corpse and abandonment of a corpse."

"Nine victims were beaten and strangled, killed, robbed, and then mutilated with parts of their bodies concealed in boxes, and parts discarded in a garbage dump," Suzuki told reporters in Tokyo on Friday.

Shiraishi (Twitter Killer) acted "for the genuinely selfish reason of satisfying his own sexual and financial desires" and the murders "caused great shock and anxiety to society," Suzuki said. "After much careful consideration, I ordered the execution."

Shiraishi was sentenced to death in 2020 for the murders of nine victims aged between 15 and 26. After luring them to his small apartment near Tokyo, he stashed parts of their bodies in coolers and toolboxes, sprinkling cat litter over them in an attempt to mask the smell and hide the evidence. 

His lawyers argued that Shiraishi (Twitter Killer) should receive a prison sentence rather than execution, claiming the victims had expressed suicidal thoughts and had consented to die. However, the court dismissed this argument, calling Shiraishi’s crimes "cunning and cruel," according to reports at the time. 

"The dignity of the victims was trampled upon," the judge said during sentencing, adding that Shiraishi had preyed upon people who were "mentally fragile."

The grisly murders came to light in autumn 2017 when police, investigating the disappearance of a 23-year-old woman who had reportedly tweeted about wanting to kill herself, traced her online activity. Her brother gained access to her Twitter account, eventually leading police to Shiraishi’s residence, where investigators found the nine dismembered bodies.

Executions in Japan are carried out by hanging, and around 100 death row prisoners are currently awaiting execution, nearly half of whom are seeking retrials, Suzuki said. Although Japanese law requires executions within six months of final sentencing, inmates often remain in solitary confinement for years or decades.

Japan and the United States are the only G7 countries that continue to use capital punishment, with strong public support for the practice in Japan despite criticism over the system’s secrecy.

In 2022, Japan executed Tomohiro Kato for a 2008 attack in Tokyo’s Akihabara district that killed seven people when he drove a rented truck into a crowd before going on a stabbing spree. "I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn't matter who I'd kill," Kato told police at the time.

Earlier, in 2018, Japan executed Aum Shinrikyo cult leader Shoko Asahara and 12 members of the doomsday cult for their role in the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, which killed 14 people and injured thousands.

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