Japan has resisted calls for abolition of the capital punishment, and the latest executions are the first under the new prime minister, Fumio Kishida

Japan has hanged three men in the country’s first executions for two years, media reports said on Tuesday, amid criticism of its use of the death penalty.

The Kyodo news agency said the justice ministry had identified the men as Yasutaka Fujishiro, 65, who murdered seven of his relatives in 2004, and Tomoaki Takanezawa, 54, and Mitsunori Onogawa, 44, who were convicted of killing two employees of a pachinko parlour in 2003.