Japan executes ‘Twitter killer’ who r@ped, dismembered nine victims after luring them online
Japan has carried out the execution of Takahiro Shiraishi, infamously dubbed the “Twitter Killer,” for the murder and dismemberment of nine individuals in 2017.
The hanging, which took place at the Tokyo Detention House, was confirmed today, Friday, 27 June 2025, by the Justice Ministry.
Shiraishi, sentenced to death in 2020, lured victims—mostly young women—through Twitter by targeting users who expressed suicidal thoughts.
He approached them under the username @hangingpro, claiming he could assist those wishing to end their lives.
His profile featured a manga drawing of a scarred man with a noose around his neck and included messages offering support to people in emotional distress.
Between August and October 2017, Shiraishi killed eight women, including three teenage girls, and one man, the boyfriend of one of the victims whom he murdered to silence.
He raped the female victims before killing them and later stored their body parts in cold-storage boxes inside his apartment in Zama, near Tokyo.
“The case caused extremely serious outcomes and dealt a major shockwave and unease to society,” said Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki at a press briefing.
He noted that he signed the execution order earlier in the week but did not witness the hanging.
Shiraishi’s execution comes amid growing public debate in Japan over the use of capital punishment, especially after the 2023 acquittal of Iwao Hakamada, the world’s longest-serving death row inmate.
Critics argue Japan’s secretive process—where prisoners aren’t informed of their execution date until the morning they are hanged—amounts to psychological torture.
Despite such concerns, Justice Minister Suzuki defended the practice, stating that a recent government survey showed most Japanese citizens still support the death penalty, although some opposition is rising.
“I believe it is not appropriate to abolish execution,” he said, pointing to increasing concerns over violent crime.
Japan now has 105 inmates on death row, including 49 seeking retrials. The last execution before Shiraishi’s was in July 2022, when a man who killed seven people in a vehicular and knife attack in Akihabara was hanged.
Shiraishi’s case remains one of Japan’s most shocking modern crimes. His calculated manipulation of social media and the brutal nature of his crimes provoked widespread horror, both domestically and internationally.
Inside the Tokyo Detention House, executions are carried out in secrecy with chilling precision.
Prisoners are led past a small gold statue of Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of compassion, to a plain room where the trapdoor is located. A viewing platform, separated by glass, allows officials to observe the moment the condemned, blindfolded and hooded, drops to their death. Medics then confirm death and clean the body.
Rights advocates fear Japan’s execution practices are regaining traction amid public support and recent judicial rulings, in stark contrast to the growing global shift against the death penalty.
