As a majority of the international community has abolished capital punishment. Japan and the U.S. are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that put people to death. The execution of Takami Sunao—an arsonist whose 2009 attack in Osaka killed five—on August 21, 2026, was Japan’s first use of capital punishment in just over a year. Over a Decade from Sentencing to Execution Takami Sunao was executed on August 21, 2026 , for a 2009 arson attack at an Osaka pachinko parlor that killed five people. In July 2009, Takami poured gasoline on the floor of a pachinko parlor in Osaka and set it alight, killing 5 customers and staff members and injuring 10 more. While the defense argued that he was in a state of diminished capacity, the Supreme Court finalized his death sentence in February 2016. The execution took place 17 years after the initial crime and 10 and a half years after the death sentence was finalized.
At least six prisoners have been executed in recent days in Adelabad Prison in Shiraz and prisons in Semnan, Dehdasht, Dezful, and Ilam. They had previously been sentenced to death or qisas (retribution in kind) on charges related to “drug offenses” or “premeditated murder.” According to a report received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Bahram (Qahreman) Keshavarzi, from Beyza County, was executed in Adelabad Prison in Shiraz at dawn on Monday, August 24, 2026. He had previously been arrested on charges related to “drug offenses” and sentenced to death.