Japan executes serial killer who left four-year-old girl's charred bones on her parents' doorstep

There were muted protests against the executions, with most Japanese supporting the death penalty.

Tsutomu Miyazaki, 45, who killed and mutilated four girls - aged four to seven - in the late 1980s, was hanged at a Tokyo detention centre, said Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama.

Miyazaki left the charred bones of one four-year-old on her parents' doorstep and is also said to have drunk another victim's blood and eaten part of her hand.

Cold-blooded: Child killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, wearing glasses at centre left, assists police at a crime scene in 1989

Japanese Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama announces today's executions

He was convicted of the abduction and sexual assault of a fifth girl.

Miyazaki wrote taunting letters to the media and victims' families, and the case triggered calls for tighter restrictions on violent pornographic videos, which he stockpiled in their thousands.

Also executed today were Shinji Mutsuda, 45, for the murder and robbery of two people in the mid-1990s, and Yoshio Yamasaki, 73, for killing two people for insurance money.

"'I ordered their executions because the cases were of indescribable cruelty,' Mr Hatoyama said. 'We are pursuing executions in order to achieve justice and firmly protect the rule of law.'

Japan, one of the few industrialised countries with the death penalty, has picked up the pace of executions over the past year amid rising concerns about violent crime.

Today's executions brought to 13 the number of death-row inmates hanged in the past six months under Mr Hatoyama, an outspoken supporter of the death penalty. Only one inmate was executed in 2005.

Protesting against today's executions, Amnesty International Japan said they were 'proof that Japan is moving to routinely execute inmates in large numbers'.

Mr Hatoyama, who took office last August, denies this.

Japan has 102 remaining Death Row inmates, the ministry said.

Japan only began to release the names of those executed and their crimes in December, apparently in a bid to gain understanding and support for the death penalty. There is little opposition to it domestically.