Japan hanged two male death row inmates, Japan's first...

Japan hanged two male death row inmates, Japan's first executions in 13 months and the first under the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Toshihiko Hasegawa, 51, who had been on death row since 1993 for killing three people in 1979 and 1983 in a murder-for-insurance case, was hanged at the Nagoya Detention House.
Kojiro Asakura, 66, a former property assessor who had been convicted of killing five members of a family in Tokyo in 1983, was executed at the Tokyo Detention House. His death sentence was finalized in 1996 following the Supreme Court's rejection of his appeal.