JAPAN: TWO DEATH-ROW INMATES EXECUTED IN SENDAI AND TOKYO

Japan executed two multiple killers, bringing to 11 the total number of death sentences carried out since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took power in 2012.
The two men executed were Mitsuhiro Kobayashi, 56, and Tsutomu Takamizawa, 59.
Kobayashi, who was executed at the Sendai detention centre, was convicted of killing five people when he set fire to a branch of consumer loan firm Takefuji Corp. in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, in 2001. His death sentence was finalized in April 2007. Earlier in August, the Supreme Court rejected his third request for a retrial.
Takamizawa, who was executed at Tokyo Detention House, was the former head of a group associated with Yamaguchi-gumi, the nation’s largest crime syndicate. Between 2001 and 2005, he was found to have been involved in three separate murder cases in Annaka, Gunma Prefecture.
The executions came days before Abe is expected to reshuffle his cabinet amid speculation that he will appoint a new justice minister, whose approval is needed for any sentence to be carried out.
“The cases were extremely brutal, leaving the bereaved family members to feel bitterness,” Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said at a news conference after the executions. “I ordered the executions to be carried out after sufficient consideration.”
Japan now has 125 inmates on death row, according to local media.