TOKYO, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The death sentence has been confirmed for a 21-year-old man convicted of murder and arson committed as a minor in 2021 in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, west of Tokyo, according to a Japanese court.
The Kofu District Court in Japan announced on Friday that the death sentence was finalized after Yuki Endo withdrew his appeal, which had been filed by his defense team on the deadline Thursday.
The ruling, issued last month, marked a historic moment as it became the first instance of capital punishment handed down to an offender who was a so-called "specified juvenile" of 19 years old at the time of the crime.
He was the first person whose real name was released after public prosecutors indicted him as a specified juvenile under the country's revised juvenile law, and also the first specified juvenile to be sentenced to death, Jiji Press reported on Friday.
In the early hours of Oct. 12, 2021, Endo fatally stabbed the 55-year-old father and 50-year-old mother of a female acquaintance at their residence in Kofu, according to the ruling.
The motive behind the violent act was reportedly the female's refusal to go on a date with Endo.
He also assaulted the acquaintance's younger sister and set fire to the house, though the acquaintance herself escaped unharmed.
Endo is the eighth person given the death penalty for crimes committed as a minor under the so-called Nagayama standard introduced in 1983. The standard takes into account factors such as the number of victims, brutality and social impact of the crime when sentencing offenders who committed the acts as minors.
Although Endo's defense had pleaded for a more lenient sentence, the district court acknowledged his ability to take criminal responsibility in handing down the death sentence, and noted that it could not help but say that he had little chance of rehabilitation. ■