TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japan executed four convicted killers on death row on Thursday, the government said, marking the first set of executions in the country since October 2008.
All four men were hanged, Japan's primary method of execution, the Justice Ministry said. The ministry identified the inmates as: 58-year-old Tadashi Makino, convicted of murdering four women in separate home invasion robberies; 44-year-old Yukinari Kawamura and 39-year-old Tetsuya Sato, both convicted of killing two women and burning their bodies in steel barrels; and 32-year-old Shojiro Nishimoto, convicted of murdering four people in separate home invasion robberies.
The executions represented blatant human rights violations, said Amnesty International spokesman Makoto Teranaka. "Japan is going against the rest of the world by increasing the pace of executions, at a time when other countries are slowing their pace."
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All four men were hanged, Japan's primary method of execution, the Justice Ministry said. The ministry identified the inmates as: 58-year-old Tadashi Makino, convicted of murdering four women in separate home invasion robberies; 44-year-old Yukinari Kawamura and 39-year-old Tetsuya Sato, both convicted of killing two women and burning their bodies in steel barrels; and 32-year-old Shojiro Nishimoto, convicted of murdering four people in separate home invasion robberies.
The executions represented blatant human rights violations, said Amnesty International spokesman Makoto Teranaka. "Japan is going against the rest of the world by increasing the pace of executions, at a time when other countries are slowing their pace."
Read more
