Japan confirms execution of cannibal killer

The notorious Japanese serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, a fetishist convicted of murdering four young girls and eating parts of their bodies, has been executed, Japanese officials confirmed.

Miyazaki, 45, was nicknamed the "killer nerd" for his obsession with sexual cartoons and pornography.

But defence lawyers argued he was mentally ill and could not be held fully responsible for his actions.

Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama told a news conference he had signed the order to send Miyazaki and two others to the gallows to "realise justice".

"We are carrying out executions by selecting the people whom we can execute with a feeling of confidence and responsibility," he said.

Japan, the only major industrialised nation other than the United States to apply the death penalty, has come under fire from the European Union and human rights groups for stepping up the pace of executions.

But Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said there was no plan to stop the hangings.

"In Japan, the majority view is that capital punishment should be maintained, so I feel no need to change what we have continued doing until now," he said.

Miyazaki was arrested in July 1989 while trying to take naked pictures of a girl outdoors and the details that emerged from his case stunned Japan.

He confessed to having killed four girls, aged between four and seven, in Tokyo and its suburbs and eating some of the remains of two of them.

Miyazaki mutilated the bodies of the victims, slept next to the corpses and drank their blood.

He sent letters to the media under a woman's name claiming responsibility for the crimes and sent a box containing the remains of one girl to her family.

"The atrocious murder of four girls to satisfy his sexual desire leaves no room for leniency," Chief Justice Tokiyasu Fujita said in January 2006 when he upheld his death sentence.

When police arrested Miyazaki, they found about 6,000 videotapes, many containing horrific footage, at his home in Saitama prefecture, near Tokyo.

During the nearly two-decade judicial process, Miyazaki never uttered a word of remorse to the victims and their families. He cryptically said that a "rat man" -- which he even drew a cartoonish image of -- committed the crimes.

The other two inmates who were executed, Shinji Mutsuda, 37, and Yoshio Yamasaki, 73, were both convicted murders.