Dubbed the “Twitter Killer”, Takahiro Shiraishi trawled social media for posts by suicidal young women and lured them to his apartment outside Tokyo. Before being caught in 2017, he had murdered nine people, including three teenage girls, who he also raped and mutilated. His Twitter handle loosely translated as “hangman”.
Shiraishi was executed in June, using the “long drop” hanging method that Japan borrowed from the UK in the 19th century. Prison guards placed him over a trapdoor and three of their colleagues simultaneously pressed release buttons, only one of which sent him to his death. The method is designed to disperse responsibility and assuage guilt.
Japan is the only G7 country, apart from the United States, that retains the right to legally exec
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