Tomohiro Kato was executed earlier today (Picture: EPA)
A Japanese man has been executed after killing seven in a lorry crash and stabbing rampage 14 years ago.
Tomohiro Kato was hanged at the Tokyo detention centre earlier on Tuesday, Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa said.
Japan continues to use the death penalty despite widespread international criticism.
Mr Furukawa argued that capital punishment remains a justified response to heinous and violent crime, adding that now is not the time to scrap it.
Kato went on his killing spree in June 2008, driving down a street in Tokyo’s Akihabara shopping area and slamming his truck into a crowd of people.
That killed three pedestrians, before he got out of the vehicle and stabbed four people to death. He injured or wounded 10 others.
Mr Furukawa said Kato had thoroughly prepared to commit the mass killings – ‘an atrocious act that led to extremely serious consequences and had a major impact on society’.
Kato being arrested after the incident in 2008 (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)
The crime scene in Tokyo’s Akihabara shopping area (Picture: EPA)
Surveillance footage aired by national broadcaster NHK afterwards showed Kato buying hunting knives two days before the attack, laughing with a store worker and at times making stabbing motions with his hands.
Media reports also suggested he had posted several online messages warnings that he was planning to kill people in a mass attack.
Kato, 39, was sentenced to death in 2011 by the Tokyo District Court.
The Supreme Court rejected his appeal in 2015.
Japanese Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa defended capital punishment today (Picture: EPA)
Mr Furukawa denied Tuesday’s hanging was related to the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this month, which shocked a nation known for strict gun controls and low crime rates.
The execution was the second under the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who took office in October.
Japan now has 107 people on death row, including 61 seeking retrials, Mr Furukawa explained.
Alongside the US, Japan is one of only two countries in the Group of Seven advanced nations that still has capital punishment.
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A survey by Japan’s government suggests an overwhelming majority of the public supports executions.
Capital punishments are carried out in high secrecy in Japan, where prisoners are not informed of their fate until the morning they are hanged.
Since 2007, Japan has begun disclosing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes but disclosures are still limited.
Three prisoners were hanged in 2021.
In 2018, Japan hanged 15 people, including the guru of the Aum Shinrikyo cult and 12 former followers convicted in the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 13 people and made thousands ill.
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