Departures of note

Sachiko Eto, a self-professed guru who claimed psychic abilities, led a cult in Sukagawa City, Fukushima, where she orchestrated the killings of six followers between December 1994 and June 1995. Calling her victims 'ugly devils,' she and her followers—including her daughter Yuko, Hiroshi Nemoto, and Mitsuo Sekine—carried out the murders during rituals that involved taiko sticks, earning her the nickname 'The Drumstick Killer.' The crimes came to light on July 5, 1995, when police searched her home after a cult member was hospitalized and discovered six rotting corpses. Eto was arrested along with her three accomplices, and a surviving victim was later taken into custody for participating in an assault.

During the trial, the court heard that Nemoto had actively helped Eto kill all six victims and injure one female cult member. The victims included Nemoto's own wife, a male follower identified as J., J.'s wife and daughter, and two other followers, K. and N. In March 1997, the Sendai High Court sentenced the surviving cult member to three years in prison, with a five-year suspended sentence. On November 16, 2001, the Fukushima District Court requested the death penalty for Eto, life imprisonment for Nemoto and Yuko Eto, and 20 years for Sekine. The sentences were affirmed on May 10, 2002, though Sekine's was reduced to 18 years.

Eto's appeals were rejected by the Sendai High Court on November 12, 2005, and the Supreme Court of Japan officially dismissed her final appeal on September 16, 2008, confirming the death sentence. She became the 10th woman sentenced to death in postwar Japan. On September 27, 2012, Eto was executed by hanging at Miyagi Prison in Sendai, making her the first woman executed in Japan in 15 years.