Reflecting a growing debate on the reporting of juvenile crimes, the nation's media were split on Friday over whether to name a man who lost an appeal against a death sentence for a 2010 double murder.

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld lower court rulings that ordered Yutaro Chiba to be hanged.

Chiba was 18 years old and a minor when he killed two women in Miyagi Prefecture, in the first case of capital punishment served for a juvenile crime under Japan's lay judge trial system. It was the seventh time a former minor has received a finalized death sentence since 1983, when the current sentencing policy was adopted.

The Asahi Shimbun, the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Sankei Shimbun switched to naming Chiba after earlier withholding his name. NHK and Kyodo News followed suit, and The Japan Times is doing so, too.

The Mainichi Shimbun and the Tokyo Shimbun, meanwhile, stuck to their stance of not identifying him. Many media outlets ran notices on their naming policy to accompany their news reports on Friday.

A Japanese journalist who has long reported on crime for a major news outlet said he supported the media naming the defendant, saying it is the duty of journalists to provide a record of who is subjected to capital punishment.

But the journalist, who declined to be named citing company policy, also said it was hard to compare media practices in Japan with those elsewhere, as Japan is the only developed nation that hands down the death penalty on defendants who were minors at the time of the crime.

The Asahi said its decision to name Chiba is based on the judgment that "subjects who will be deprived of life by the state should have their names made public."

The daily added that it had withheld Chiba's name until now, respecting the rehabilitative spirit of the Juvenile Law and believing he still stood a chance of reintegration into society. It added that the paper adopted a policy in 2004 of naming underage perpetrators of crimes when their death sentences are finalized by the Supreme Court.

The Sankei said it decided to report Chiba's name because, with the death sentence being effectively finalized and no chance of release from jail, "the chance for him to be rehabilitated will be lost." It also cited the gravity of the crime.

The Yomiuri cited both aspects: the defendant’s death sentence with no chance of rehabilitation, and the grave social concern of knowing who is hanged by the state.

Article 61 of the Juvenile Law bans media from publishing photographs and other details about convicts and suspects who are minors, including their names, appearances and occupations. The ban carries no penalties, however, and it has sparked great public debate in recent years.

The case comes at a time of increasing public calls for toughening the penalties for juvenile offenders. While mainstream media do not name minors, their names are often quickly hunted down by internet users and propagated via social media.

In May 2015, the weekly Shukan Shincho ran an article identifying an 18-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of fatally stabbing a 13-year-old boy in Kawasaki. It named him and printed his photograph.

The weekly ran a separate article explaining its decision, saying it is unreasonable to protect those behind heinous crimes, even if they are minors, and noted that the suspect's identity was already widely available on the internet.

But the liberal Tokyo Shimbun said it was sticking to its anonymity policy over the latest case, citing the chance, however small, of a retrial or parole for the defendant.

"We still think consideration is necessary to protect his anonymity as the Juvenile Law expects," the newspaper wrote.

The Mainichi noted the cruelty of the crime, but said this did not negate the man's right to a chance of rehabilitation.

"This is a most inhuman crime that has robbed the precious lives of two men, but we have judged that we should not change our policy of keeping minor defendants anonymous. ... It is hoped the defendant will keep a rehabilitative posture, show remorse and express sincere apologies for the victims and bereaved families."

The Sendai district and high courts found Chiba guilty of stabbing to death his former girlfriend's older sister, Misa Nambu, 20, and her 18-year-old friend, Mikako Omori, and seriously injuring a man who was with them on Feb. 10, 2010, in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture.

"Even if his age and having no criminal record is taken into account ... his criminal responsibility is grave," the Supreme Court said, suggesting that the death penalty was inevitable.

Information from Kyodo News added