Capital punishment is a legal penalty for homicide in Japan, and is applied in cases of multiple homicides or a single aggravated homicide. Executions in Japan are carried out by hanging, and the country has seven execution chambers, all located in major cities.
After a four-year moratorium, executions resumed in 1993 and up to 15 have taken place almost each year since then. Thirteen of those executed in 2018 had taken part in the Tokyo subway sarin attack of 1995.
List of people executed since 1993 Name Age Sex Date Place Crime Victim(s) Minister of Justice 1Seikichi Kondo55M26 March 1993SendaiMultiple murders2Masaharu Gotoda 2Shujiro Tachikawa62MOsakaMultiple murders2 3Tetsuo Kawanaka48MOsakaMultiple murders3 4Tadao Kojima61M26 November 1993SapporoMultiple murders3Akira Mikazuki 5Yukio Seki47MTokyoSingle murder1 6Hideo Deguchi70MOsakaMultiple murders2 7Toru Sakaguchi56MOsaka 8Yukio Ajima44M1 December 1994TokyoMultiple murders3Isao Maeda 9Kazumi Sasaki66MSendaiMultiple murders*2 10Eiji Fujioka40M26 May 1995OsakaMultiple murders2 11Fusao Suda54MTokyoSingle murder1 12Shigeho Tanaka69MTokyoSingle murder1 13Shuji Kimura45M21 December 1995NagoyaSingle murder1Hiroshi Miyazawa 14Naoto Hirata63MFukuokaMultiple murders2 15Tokujirou Shinohara68MTokyoMultiple murders*2 16Yoshiaki Sugimoto49M11 July 1996FukuokaSingle murder1Ritsuko Nagao 17Kazumi Yokoyama43MFukuoka 18Mikio Ishida48MTokyoMultiple murders2 19Yoshihito Imai55M20 December 1996TokyoMultiple murders3Isao Matsuura 20Mitsunari Hirata60MTokyoMultiple murders2 21Satoru Noguchi50MTokyo 22Yasumasa Hidaka54M1 August 1997Sapporo Multiple murders7 23Nobuko Hidaka51FSapporo 24Hideki Kanda43MTokyoMultiple murders3 25Norio Nagayama48MTokyoMultiple murders4 26Masahiro Muratake54M25 June 1998FukuokaMultiple murders3Kokichi Shimoinaba 27Yukihisa Takeyasu66MFukuokaMultiple murders*1 28Shinji Shimazu66MTokyoMultiple murders*1 29Masamichi Ida56M19 November 1998NagoyaMultiple murders3Shozaburo Nakamura 30Tatsuaki Nishio61MNagoyaSingle murder1 31Akira Tsuda59MHiroshimaSingle murder1 32Masashi Satou62M10 September 1999TokyoMultiple murders*1Takao Jinnouchi 33Katsutoshi Takada61MSendaiMultiple murders*1 34Tetsuyuki Morikawa69MFukuokaMultiple murders*2 35Teruo Ono62M17 December 1999FukuokaMultiple murders*1Hideo Usui 36Kazuo Sagawa48MTokyoMultiple murders2 37Kiyotaka Katsuta52M30 November 2000NagoyaMultiple murders22Okiharu Yasuoka 38Takashi Miyawaki57MNagoyaMultiple murders3 39Kunikatsu Oishi55MFukuokaMultiple murders3 40Toshihiko Hasegawa51M27 December 2001NagoyaMultiple murders3Mayumi Moriyama 41Kojiro Asakura66MTokyoMultiple murders5 42Ryuya Haruta36M18 September 2002FukuokaSingle murder1 43Yoshiteru Hamada51MNagoyaMultiple murders*3 44Sinji Mukai42M12 September 2003OsakaMultiple murders3 45Sueo Shimazaki59M14 September 2004FukuokaMultiple murders3Daizo Nozawa 46Mamoru Takuma40MOsakaMultiple murders8 47Susumu Kitagawa58M16 September 2005OsakaMultiple murders2Chieko Nono 48Hiroaki Hidaka44M25 December 2006HiroshimaMultiple murders4Jinen Nagase 49Yoshimitsu Akiyama77MTokyoSingle murder1 50Yoshio Fujinami75MTokyoMultiple murders2 51Michio Fukuoka64MOsakaMultiple murders3 52Yoshikatsu Oda59M27 April 2007FukuokaMultiple murders2 53Masahiro Tanaka42MTokyoMultiple murders4 54Kosaku Nada56MOsakaMultiple murders2 55Hifumi Takezawa69M23 August 2007TokyoMultiple murders3 56Kozo Segawa60MNagoyaMultiple murders2 57Yoshio Iwamoto62MTokyoMultiple murders2 58Seiha Fujima47M7 December 2007TokyoMultiple murders5Kunio Hatoyama 59Hiroki Fukawa42MTokyoMultiple murders2 60Noboru Ikemoto74MOsakaMultiple murders3 61Masahiko Matsubara63M1 February 2008OsakaMultiple murders2 62Takashi Mochida65MTokyoMultiple murders*1 63Keishi Nago37MFukuokaMultiple murders2 64Kaoru Okashita61M10 April 2008TokyoMultiple murders2 65Masahito Sakamoto41MTokyoSingle murder1 66Katsuyoshi Nakamoto64MOsakaMultiple murders2 67Masaharu Nakamura61MOsakaMultiple murders2 68Tsutomu Miyazaki45M17 June 2008TokyoMultiple murders4 69Yoshio Yamasaki73MOsakaMultiple murders2 70Shinji Mutsuda37MTokyoMultiple murders2 71Yoshiyuki Mantani68M11 September 2008OsakaMultiple murders*1Okiharu Yasuoka 72Mineteru Yamamoto68MOsakaMultiple murders2 73Isamu Hirano61MTokyoMultiple murders*2 74Michitoshi Kuma70M28 October 2008FukuokaMultiple murders2Eisuke Mori 75Masahiro Takashio55MSendaiMultiple murders2 76Yukinari Kawamura44M29 January 2009NagoyaMultiple murders2 77Tetsuya Sato39MNagoya 78Shojiro Nishimoto32MTokyoMultiple murders4 79Tadashi Makino58MFukuokaMultiple murders*1 80Hiroshi Maeue40M28 July 2009OsakaMultiple murders3 81Yukio Yamaji25MOsakaMultiple murders*2 82Chen Detong41MTokyoMultiple murders3 83Kazuo Shinozawa59M28 July 2010TokyoMultiple murders6Keiko Chiba 84Hidenori Ogata33MTokyoMultiple murders2 85Yasuaki Uwabe48M29 March 2012HiroshimaMultiple murders5Toshio Ogawa 86Tomoyuki Furusawa46MTokyoMultiple murders3 87Yasutoshi Matsuda44MFukuokaMultiple murders2 88Junya Hattori40M3 August 2012TokyoSingle murder1Makoto Taki 89Kyozo Matsumura31MOsakaMultiple murders2 90Sachiko Eto65F27 September 2012SendaiMultiple murders6 91Yukinori Matsuda39MFukuokaMultiple murders2 92Masahiro Kanagawa29M21 February 2013TokyoMultiple murders2Sadakazu Tanigaki 93Keiki Kano62MNagoyaMultiple murders*1 94Kaoru Kobayashi44MOsakaSingle murder1 95Katsuji Hamasaki64M26 April 2013TokyoMultiple murders2 96Yoshihide Miyagi56MTokyo 97Tokuhisa Kumagai73M12 September 2013TokyoSingle murder1 98Mitsuo Fujishima55M12 December 2013TokyoMultiple murders2 99Ryoji Kagayama63MOsakaMultiple murders2 100Masanori Kawasaki68M26 June 2014OsakaMultiple murders3 101Mitsuhiro Kobayashi56M29 August 2014 SendaiMultiple murders5 102Tsutomu Takamizawa59MTokyoMultiple murders3 103Tsukasa Kanda44M25 June 2015NagoyaSingle murder1Yōko Kamikawa 104Sumitoshi Tsuda63M18 December 2015SendaiMultiple murders3Mitsuhide Iwaki 105Kazuyuki Wakabayashi39MTokyoMultiple murders2 106Yasutoshi Kamata75M25 March 2016OsakaMultiple murders5 107Junko Yoshida56FFukuokaMultiple murders2 108Kenichi Tajiri45M10 November 2016FukuokaMultiple murders2Katsutoshi Kaneda 109Masakatsu Nishikawa61M13 July 2017OsakaMultiple murders4 110Koichi Sumida34MHiroshimaSingle murder1 111Teruhiko Seki44M19 December 2017TokyoMultiple murders4Yōko Kamikawa 112Kiyoshi Matsui69MTokyoMultiple murders3 113Shoko Asahara63M6 July 2018TokyoMultiple murders29 114Seiichi Endo58MTokyo 115Masami Tsuchiya53MTokyo 116Tomomitsu Niimi54MOsaka 117Yoshihiro Inoue48MOsaka 118Tomomasa Nakagawa55MHiroshima 119Kiyohide Hayakawa68MFukuoka 120Satoru Hashimoto51M26 July 2018Tokyo 121Yasuo Hayashi60MSendai 122Kenichi Hirose54MTokyo 123Toru Toyoda50MTokyo 124Masato Yokoyama54MNagoya 125Kazuaki Okazaki57MNagoya 126Keizo Okamoto60M27 December 2018OsakaMultiple murders2Takashi Yamashita 127Hiroya Suemori67MOsaka 128Koichi Shoji64M2 August 2019TokyoMultiple murders2 129Yasunori Suzuki50MFukuokaMultiple murders3 130Wei Wei40M26 December 2019FukuokaMultiple murders4Masako Mori 131Yasutaka Fujishiro65M21 December 2021OsakaMultiple murders7Yoshihisa Furukawa 132Tomoaki Takanezawa54MTokyoMultiple murders2 133Mitsunori Onogawa44MTokyo 134Tomohiro Katō39M26 July 2022TokyoMultiple murders7 135Takahiro Shiraishi34M27 June 2025TokyoMultiple murders9Keisuke Suzuki 136Sunao Takami58M21 August 2026OsakaMultiple murders5Hiroshi Hiraguchi
+The number of people executed in Japan since 19931993199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201272664653221214915720720132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026202720282029203020312032833341530310011—————— Note: Inmates noted with a * were sentenced to death for homicide(s) committed while on parole for another homicide
See also List of death row inmates in Japan
References