‘AFTER CAREFUL CONSIDERATION’

Japan Hangs Chinese Man in Rare Execution of Foreigner

For the high-profile murder of a family of four, including an eight-year-old and an 11-year-old.

Japan has hanged a Chinese man for the high-profile 2003 murder of a family of four, including an eight-year-old and 11-year-old, in the first execution of a foreigner there in 10 years. Wei Wei, who was hanged, had two accomplices who fled to China; one was sentenced to life in jail there the other was executed in 2005. Japan's Justice Minister, Masako Mori, said she signed off on the execution of Wei Wei “after careful consideration” in what she called a “brutal” murder for “truly selfish reasons.” The killers were trying to rob businessman Shinjiro Matsumoto in Fukuoka. Matsumoto was strangled, his two children were strangled or smothered, and his wife was drowned in her bath. In Japan, death row inmates are not typically told about their impending execution until the day it is set to be carried out, according to the BBC.