The execution of former death-row inmate Shiraishi Shiraishi, who murdered nine people in Zama.

FRIDAY Digital will report on a number of incidents in the year 2025, and we will select the most important ones for this edition of “Violent & Serious Incidents in 2025. This time we will introduce “Execution of Zama 9 Murderers,” an interview with former death row inmate Takahiro Shiraishi reported in “FRIDAY Digital” on June 28, with new content.

No matter what you ask, “It depends on the money.

On June 27, former death-row inmate Takahiro Shiraishi (34 at the time), who had been sentenced to death for the murder of nine people in an apartment in Zama City, Kanagawa Prefecture in 2005, was executed on charges including robbery and forcible sex murder.

The incident was discovered on October 30, 2005. The dismembered bodies of nine people were found in an apartment in Zama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. The murderer was Shiraishi, who lived in the apartment and was arrested the next day.

Shiraishi lured a suicidal woman into his home, murdered her, and committed a series of crimes in an attempt to thoroughly damage her body. At first, he seemed to have a desire to ‘become a pimp. However, after the experience of getting pleasure that he could not get from ordinary sexual acts when he made his first victim faint and had sexual intercourse with her, his goal became to kill her and take her money and goods. Between August and October of ’17, he had eight women and one male acquaintance of the victims in his hands” (reporter from the society section of a national newspaper).

Shiraishi was sentenced to death on December 15, 2008. His defense appealed, but he withdrew the appeal himself, and his death sentence was finalized on January 15, 2009.

FRIDAY” had an interview with Shiraishi on September 21, 2006, about a year after his arrest. The following is a description of his condition at that time (figures in parentheses are quotations from previous articles).

At around 10:20 a.m., Shiraishi appeared in the visiting room of the Takao Police Station (Hachioji City), where he was detained, looking much the same as he did at the time of the incident. He was wearing a plain gray sweatshirt and square black rimmed glasses. His shaggy hair was long enough to reach his shoulders, and he wore a scruffy beard on his skinny cheeks and chin.

Why did he agree to be interviewed by this magazine? We first asked Shiraishi, who bowed to the reporter with a blank expression and sat down.

He replied, “I thought that someone from a weekly magazine would give me this (gesture of money) after all. …… I nominated him because I wanted to meet someone from Kodansha who had previously sent me letters and magazine inserts.”

However, when this magazine’s reporter asked him a question, he replied, “(Making a circle with his finger) It depends on Kore. When asked what he wanted to talk about, he simply replied, ” It depends on the money.

Shiraishi got excited by the offerings.

Why is he so obsessed with money? To find out Shiraishi’s true intentions, we offered him the maximum amount of 30,000 yen after our visit. Four days after the first meeting, Shiraishi returned to our office and, smiling, said, “I got 30,000 yen, and I got pretty excited.

I bought a fried chicken lunch box for 400 yen. To be honest, when you have money, your life is totally different when you go to the detention center. There is a store in the detention center, and they have chocolate pies, chocolate boards, bread rolls, cream buns, and so on. I was told by people inside that it is really hard without money, so I want to save as much as I can and go to the detention center.

If I can get regular cash drops, I will write letters from now on. Not only to Mr. Friday, but I will also write a letter (of repentance) to my parents. The price will depend on the recipient.

Shiraishi continued to blabber on as he stared into the eyes of the reporters.

At the time, the trial was still a long way off, but the unprecedented heinous crime he had committed would not escape the maximum sentence. I wonder if he has any regrets about his life.

“After all, I wanted to eat better food. I wanted to eat more delicious food, like the ramen noodles from “Mongolian Ramen Nakamoto,” which I liked. …… I also wanted to have more fun with women. It’s really just an ordinary thing.

There was not a shred of remorse for the incident or apology to the victims in his words. He was begging for money because he wanted to enjoy the pleasure of eating while he was in detention. He was always self-centered, thinking only of immediate pleasure.

Actually, I’m in trouble with my lawyer.”

This magazine also met and interviewed Shiraishi a year later, in October 2007. At that time, he candidly described the crime against Ako, the first person he had killed.

He said, “Actually, I feel sorry for only Ako, the first person I killed. In the 10 days from the time I met her until I killed her, she bought me meals, paid for my hotel room, and did a lot for me. I should have just kept on begging her for money as a pimp instead of killing her.

I killed Ms. A on August 23. I started thinking about killing her on August 18. I knew that she had saved a considerable amount of money since we got to know each other, and I really wanted that money. So I told her, ‘I can’t pass the real estate agency’s screening because I don’t have any money,’ and borrowed about 500,000 yen. Thanks to her, I was approved for the apartment, but I still did not want to pay back the 500,000 yen I borrowed. That was on August 18. I thought about how I could avoid paying her back, and decided to kill her.

At that time, the trial had not yet started and was still in the pre-trial proceedings stage. When a reporter asked him about what he would argue at trial, his expression clouded and he began to confide, “This is the first time I’m going to say this, but I’m actually in a dispute with my lawyer. At this point, Shiraishi had already dismissed his attorney once. This was due to a conflict of opinion with his court-appointed defense counsel, who had ordered him to remain silent after he had admitted his guilt. However, it seems that the newly appointed defense counsel was also dissatisfied.

“I explained the circumstances to the new defense attorney and told him, ‘I have decided to accept the death penalty. I told them, ‘I have decided to accept the death penalty, so please don’t do anything unnecessary. They agreed. But then, you know!　In July of this year, they suddenly started preparing to reduce the charges of “forced sexual intercourse, murder, and robbery” without my consent. I’m honestly very pissed off at this betrayal.

True to his words at the time, “Don’t do anything unnecessary,” Shiraishi withdrew his appeal against the death sentence handed down on December 15, 2008, when the defense appealed against the decision.

Although Shiraishi had spoken of his readiness for the death penalty, it seems that he never intended to atone for his crimes. At his trial, he apologized to some of the victims, including Ms. A, but said he had “little impression” of other victims and “nothing in particular to think about. He also said that he “still holds a grudge” against the families of the victims who reported the incident to the police, which led to his arrest.

Lawyers Criticize the Statement of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations

When news of Shiraishi’s execution broke, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) issued a “Chairman’s Statement strongly protesting the execution, calling for an immediate halt to all executions and the abolition of the death penalty in line with the global trend toward abolition,” expressing regret.

The statement is a standard one that the Japan Federation of Bar Associations and bar associations around the world, which oppose the death penalty, issue each time an execution is carried out.

Takashi Shibata, a lawyer representing the bereaved family, stated at the press conference , “It would be fine if the execution was carried out in consideration of the bereaved family’s feelings, but that is not how it should be taken. He complained that the family members of the victims might take the statement as a protest against Shiraishi’s execution itself, which would upset their feelings.

On the other hand, some pointed out that there were political reasons for the timing of the execution, which was the first execution in about three years.’ In October 2012, the acquittal of death-row inmate Iwao Hakamada was confirmed, and there was a growing momentum to review the death penalty. Against this backdrop, the administration’s intention may have been to avoid creating a three-year or longer death penalty gap so as not to shake up the death penalty system.

However, Shiraishi, who was self-centered to the end, probably did not care about such a fuss.