Convicted killer on death row chokes to death on meal inside prison

Staff at the facility tried to remove the food from Ueta’s throat before she was transferred to a local hospital.

She was confirmed dead three hours later at 6.55 pm.

Bizarrely four days before her death, the former bar worker, who was on multiple medications, was also transferred to hospital after choking on her food.

That same year, she drugged and drowned electronics store owner Hideki Maruyama, 57, in October.

This was the second death sentence the presiding judge, Takashi Noguchi, had handed out to a female criminal, the first being Kanae Kijima.

Ueta’s death sentence was finalised in 2017 after a Supreme Court upheld the rulings by the lower courts.

The Supreme Court found that the defendant carried premeditated ‘cruel crimes based on firm intentions to kill’ and she bears ‘grave criminal responsibility.’

He told the outlet: "It's been 14 years since my father died, and I'm surprised that a death row inmate died in this way. Since then, I think it's been taking too long without being executed.

"Every day I put my hands on my father at the Buddhist altar in my house, and tonight I'd like to put my hands together and report today.”

Following the death of the murderer, there are currently 105 inmates on death row in Japan.

Capital punishment remains legal in Japan and most parts of Asia; however, in November 2022, three death row prisoners sued the Japanese government to stop hanging as a form of execution.

A lawyer for the prisoners, Kyoji Mizutani, said he hopes the lawsuit will spark a national conversation about the future of capital punishment.