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Silent execution of Osaka sisters' killer

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“Which will come first, my own death or the execution? That’s all I’ve been thinking about. I now have something to take with me to my daughters when it’s my time to go,” says the victims’ father, Kazuo Uehara, 60.

Uehara, still coping with his health after suffering a stroke last year, heard from the media that the execution had taken place. Yukio Yamaji, 25, one of the youngest to be handed the death penalty in postwar Japan, was executed on July 28 at the Osaka Detention Center.

In 2000, Yamaji had killed his mother with a metal baseball bat at the age of 16. Shortly after being released in 2004, in the following year he raped and stabbed to death two sisters sharing an apartment – Asuka Uehara, 27, and her sister Chihiro, 19.

The man admitted to the slaying of the sisters and asked for the death penalty, making freakish comments in court such as “Killing humans is the same as breaking something.”

Akira Hashiguchi, his attorney at the time, expressed his disappointment in being unable to find any sign of remorse in the man. The death row inmate had long been uncommunicative, but the final time he met Yamaji, he was certain the man was suffering “incarceration fatigue,” having lost considerable weight and asking to be executed as soon as possible.

Without family or friends, he had no last words, and remained silent all the way to the execution chamber. In the absence of any clarification as to his motive for the killings, the murder remains a mystery.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

14 Comments
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He grew up in miserable environment. He lost his father, who was a drunken and violent but he loved him, when he was a child. In school days, sometimes he was not given school lunch because of nonpayment from poverty. Schoolmates also bullied or neglected him. He gave up to enter high school and worked delivering newspapers to sustain living, while his mother made indistinct debt over and over again....

Family problems are really painful for kids. It isn't so mysterious that his mind had broken in this environment. I don't think he perpetrated a crime if he grew up in more love and better environment. I agree with Beelzebub.

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Actually the indisputable fact is if he had been executed the first time, the two sister would be alive today. As in living and breathing right now.

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baseball bat killer released after for years because " well awww, kids can't be bad, he was just playing up" said killer gets out and knifes 2 girls to death. Government tries, convicts and suddenly kills him behind closed doors. What a great place!

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He won't be missed. Hope the father can remain strong.

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If it were my two daughters that were murdered, I am sure I would feel a sense of justice and closure. That in itself is enough reason for the punishment. Some people just don't deserve to live.

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Damn, that was one cold son of a bitch! I do remember this and I can't believe it took the gov. this long to put him down.

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It's incredible that someone who beats his own mother to death with a baseball bat is released after only four years. I'd like to know who authorised the release and on what grounds. Get the guy on TV and make him explain himself.

I don't believe that the death penalty is much of a deterrent to these people. As for violence in the UK, I believe that ever-shorter sentences have a lot to do with the rise in crime. Ten years, or less for killing someone isn't enough. Make it a minimum of thirty years and you'll start to see a difference.

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He got what he deserved, but as always, "the murder remains a mystery" part is very disturbing. I wish someday scientists or psychiatrists invent a safe way (not like injecting drugs or anything) to get the whole story out of maniacs like him.

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Killer warped in upbringing by parents and society. Analyze where we went wrong. A child, loved, taught to do right by others, and seek only redress within legal confines makes a contributing member of society. We seem to be creating scapegoats intentionally like the Romans enjoy gladiators and beast-baiting. Would life be too dull without spectator sports of crime as long as we're neither the victim nor the criminal-to-be-punished?

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Any euphoria won't last long, since executing her killer won't bring her back. Is our world now a better place, now that one malefactor has been removed from it? I don't know. But I don't think killing him is going to serve as a deterrent to the next murderous misfit. Humanity just lurches and stumbles on...

It won't bring them back, but neither will there be any others killed by this monster. He should have been held for life after murdering his mother, but since this is Japan, and he was underage, he turns 20, and hes out. Allowing him to murder 2 girls as well. And yes, his death, makes the world a better place. Even if no one else is deterred from committing a crime, at least these girls killer received justice.

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"Any euphoria won't last long, since executing her killer won't bring her back. Is our world now a better place, now that one malefactor has been removed from it? "

Yes. They should "remove" A LOT more than they do.

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Beelzebub - dont you mean "executing their killers wont bring them back "

I absolutely see the death penalty as a deterrent - since it was abolished in the uk, violent crime has soared. Without death, people just have nothing to fear. The justice system is a joke.

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Any euphoria won't last long, since executing her killer won't bring her back. Is our world now a better place, now that one malefactor has been removed from it? I don't know. But I don't think killing him is going to serve as a deterrent to the next murderous misfit. Humanity just lurches and stumbles on...

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Can't cross the river.

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