Japan hanged two men convicted of multiple murders in the country's first executions for 13 months, the justice ministry said today.
"Executions were carried out today on two people whose death sentences had been finalised,'' the justice ministry said in a statement.
In line with ministry policy, officials declined to identify the men, but the Kyodo News Agencynamed them as Toshihiko Hasegawa (51) and Kojiro Asakura (66).
Hasegawa, who had been on death row since 1993 for killing three people in 1979 and 1983, was hanged at the Nagoya Detention House, central Japan, about 270 kilometres (170 miles), southwest of Tokyo.
Asakura, a former property assessor who had been convicted of killing a family of five at their home in Tokyo and cutting up three of the bodies in June 1983.
The real estate assessor had signed a contract to resell the house and land where the family lived after he successfully bid on the property at an auction, Kyodo said.
Tokyo last hanged three convicts in November 2000 without warning, raising speculation that the sudden move was politically motivated ahead of a cabinet reshuffle the following month.
Today's executions were carried out while Japan's parliament is in recess, a practice anti-death penalty campaigners have said in the past is intended to limit criticism of the hangings. Japan has now executed 41 people since 1993. Around 110 inmates are currently on death row, 50 of whom no longer have any channels of appeal.
AFP