Japan man gets death sentence for crime committed as a minor: NHK

Tokyo: A Japanese court on Thursday sentenced to death a man who was a minor at the time of his crime three years ago, in the first capital punishment case since the country lowered the legal age of adulthood, public broadcaster NHK and other media said.

Yuki Endo was 19 years old in 2021 when he stabbed the parents of a love interest and set fire to their home in Yamanashi prefecture, west of Tokyo, according to the reports.

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It was the first death sentence to be given since Japan lowered the legal age of adulthood to 18 from 20 in April 2022, the reports said.

Japan and the United States are the only Group of Seven (G7) nations that carry out capital punishment by methods including hanging in Japan and lethal injection in the US.

Unlike in the United States where execution dates are set in advance and made public, inmates in Japan are notified on the morning of their execution. The U.N. Committee against Torture has criticized Japan for "the psychological strain" on inmates and their families.