A female inmate awaiting execution in Japan after being convicted of murdering two men in the western prefecture of Tottori in 2009 died Saturday of asphyxiation after choking on food, the Justice Ministry said Sunday.
Miyuki Ueta, 49, was being held at the Hiroshima Detention House. The cause of death was confirmed by an outside doctor who examined her body, the ministry added.
Ueta, a former bar worker, was convicted of drugging a truck driver and drowning him in the sea in April 2009 before drugging and drowning an electronics store owner in a river in October that year. Her death sentence was finalised in 2017.
Following Ueta's death, 105 people remain incarcerated with a finalized death sentence in Japan, according to the ministry. There was one execution in 2022.
In July, Tomohiro Kato, a 39-year-old former office worker, was executed for killing seven and injuring 10 others during a rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara district in 2008.
