Japan has executed three prisoners on death row for the first time in two years.
The government said it was necessary to maintain capital punishment in the face of continued "atrocious crimes" – the inmates are usually hanged long after sentencing.
More than 100 people are currently on death row in the country, most of them being cases of mass murder.
One of the men who was executed was 65-year-old Yasutaka Fujishiro, who used a hammer and knife to kill his 80-year-old aunt, two cousins and four others in 2004, a justice ministry spokeswoman told AFP.
Prisoners on death row in Japan are notified only hours before they are to be executed in a long criticised practice by rights groups – which say it affects the mental health of prisoners.
Last month, two death row inmates in Japan took legal action against same-day executions.
"Death row prisoners live in fear every morning that that day will be their last," said the lawyer for the two death row inmates Yutaka Ueda, according to a Reuters report.
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