Debate over executions triggered by mass killer

Japanese caretaker who murdered 19 mentally disabled people in appeal

A Japanese man sentenced to death for murdering 19 people at a facility for the mentally disabled has appealed against his 2016 conviction, triggering renewed debate over the death penalty in a country where public support for capital punishment remains high.

Satoshi Uematsu, 32, was convicted in March 2020 of the murder of 19 residents at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en care centre outside Tokyo, and sentenced to death. Uematsu, a former caretaker at the facility, used knives to wound another 26 people.

Immediately after the death sentence was meted out at the Yokohama District Court, Uematsu withdrew the automatic legal appeal to higher courts.

The request for a retrial was filed with the same court on Sunday, with judges to rule on whether a retrial should be granted in the coming weeks.

The reason for the appeal is unclear. Uematsu’s lawyers claimed in the original trial that he could not be held accountable for his actions because of mental incompetence, in part from his consumption of marijuana.

Uematsu had previously sent a letter to the speaker of Japan’s lower house of parliament in which he threatened to kill disabled people and outlined a plan for attacks on Tsukui Yamayuri-en and another facility.

He also wrote that killing the disabled would be “for the sake of Japan and world peace”.

Relatives of the dead have expressed their anger at the request for a retrial, with a parent of a murdered resident telling the Kanagawa newspaper, “I am forced to turn back time to relive it. I am very disappointed at the request for a trial.”

Takeshi Ono, whose 49-yearold son Ichiya was severely injured in the attack, told the newspaper, “I am surprised. I have no words. I want to express my anger.”

There has been little sympathy for Uematsu among the Japanese public, with government data showing around 80 per cent of them support the death penalty.

“That was a terrible case, to me probably the worst I can remember in Japan,” said Makoto Hosomura, 68, a wine importer from Saitama prefecture.

“Most people were shocked that he managed to kill so many people, but also that he chose people who could not defend themselves,” he said. “I think the … court ruling was correct.”

Opponents of the death penalty continue their campaigns, with the Asahi newspaper calling for Tokyo to follow European nations and abolish executions.

After the July 2018 hanging of the last six members of the cult that carried out a fatal 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, an editorial described the executions as “shocking”.