The three people executed Thursday were Yasutoshi Matsuda, 44, Tomoyuki Furusawa, 46, and Yasuaki Uwabe, 48.
Matsuda, hanged at the Fukuoka Detention House, was convicted of killing and robbing two women in Miyazaki Prefecture, in November and December 2001, for money he was going to spend for his own pleasure.
Furusawa, hanged at the Tokyo Detention House, was convicted of murdering his 12-year-old stepson and his estranged wife's parents in July 2002. He was also found guilty of confining his wife in Yokohama the month before out of suspicion that she was having an affair.
Uwabe, hanged at the Hiroshima Detention House, was convicted of running over seven people with a car, two of whom died, and slashing seven other people with a knife, killing three, at JR Shimonoseki Station in, Yamaguchi Prefecture, in September 1999.