Japan hanged three convicted murderers today and revealed their names and details of the crimes in a new policy aimed at increasing public support for executions, which are running at their highest level in 31 years.
The three hanged today included Seiha Fujima (47), who killed a 16-year-old girl, her mother and a sister after the girl refused his romantic advances, the justice ministry said in a statement.
The other two, Hiroki Fukawa (42), and Noboru Ikemoto (74), were also convicted of multiple murders, the ministry said.
The Justice Ministry had previously announced only the number of people hanged, although Japanese media would reveal their identities.
Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama, who backs the death penalty, told a parliamentary panel he had sought the change in policy.
Opinion polls show most Japanese favour capital punishment despite relatively low rates of crime, which a study published this week showed had fallen further since 2002.
The deaths bring the number executed to nine this year, the highest number since 1976, but still way below the United States, where 42 death sentences have been carried out in 2007.
"We welcome signs of opening up amid the secrecy that surrounds the capital punishment system," advocacy group Amnesty International said in a statement.
"But we strongly protest the fact that this is the third round of executions this year and nine people have been executed."
Japan's capital punishment has been widely criticised, including by the UN Committee against Torture, partly because those on death row are not told when they will be executed until the day they are hanged. Many remain on death row for decades.
Lawyers and human rights groups have expressed concern that sentencing will become harsher because of a new emphasis in Japan on the opinions of crime victims and their families.
Last month a UN committee passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on capital punishment, although similar moves have been rejected by the world body's general assembly in the past.
Executions are effectively on hold in the United States as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the legality of lethal injections.