Japan on Tuesday hanged three convicts marking a first under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who assumed power in October this year.

It is also the first time in two years that Japan has hanged death-row inmates.

Japan’s Ministry of Justice identified the three convicts as Yasutaka Fujishiro, 65, who had killed seven of his relatives in Hyogo province in 2004, and Tomoaki Takanezawa, 54, and Mitsunori Onogawa, 44, who were convicted of killing two employees at two separate pachinko parlors in Gunma province in 2003, Kyodo News reported.

At a time when two-thirds of countries around the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, Kishida’s government has insisted that Japan cannot abolish the law.

“Many Japanese think the death penalty is unavoidable in the case of extremely malicious crimes,” Seiji Kihara, Japan’s deputy chief cabinet secretary, told reporters following the executions./aa