Japan executes man behind pachinko parlour arson that killed 5

Japan executed on Friday 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.