Japan executed Sunao Takami for the 2009 Osaka pachinko parlour arson that killed five people. The hanging has renewed scrutiny of the country's secretive death penalty system and abolition debate.

Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Japan early Friday executed a 58-year-old man convicted of killing five people in a fire he ignited at a pachinko parlor in Osaka 17 years ago, the first death-row inmate to be put to death by the ultra-conservative administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Japan early Friday executed a 58-year-old man convicted of killing five people in a fire he ignited at a pachinko parlor in Osaka 17 years ago, the first death-row inmate to be put to death by the ultra-conservative administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Japan says it has executed a man convicted of killing five people after setting fire to a pachinko parlor in 2009.