Japan executes 'Twitter killer' behind 2017 serial murders

Japan has carried out its first execution in two years, hanging the man behind one of the country’s most disturbing crime sprees in recent memory. Takahiro Shiraishi, nicknamed the "Twitter killer," was executed for the murder of nine people in 2017, a case that horrified the nation and ignited debate over how suicide is discussed online.

Shiraishi, then 30, used Twitter to contact people, mostly young women in distress, and offered to help them end their lives. But what he promised as empathy turned into manipulation and murder. He lured victims aged 15 to 26 to his apartment in Zama, just outside Tokyo, where he strangled and dismembered them.

The grisly trail unravelled in October 2017 when police, searching for a missing woman, discovered body parts stored in coolers and toolboxes inside Shiraishi’s apartment. The media quickly dubbed it the “house of horrors.”

Shiraishi confessed to killing nine people he met on Twitter, now known as X, using a profile that claimed to offer support to those struggling with suicidal thoughts. He told some victims he would die with them, but instead ended their lives alone.

As per media reports, his defence team attempted to argue that the murders were consensual, but Shiraishi later contradicted that narrative, insisting he acted without consent. The court rejected the plea and sentenced him to death in December 2020, drawing a crowd of hundreds outside the courthouse.

The killings forced Twitter to revise its policies, banning posts that promote or encourage suicide or self-harm.

Shiraishi’s death marks a rare use of capital punishment in Japan, a country where the death penalty remains legal but is infrequently applied.