The Saitama District Court has sentenced a 30-year-old man to 17 years in prison for killing a business acquaintance in Misato City, Saitama Prefecture, last August.
In the lay judge trial, Yosuke Uchida, a construction worker, was convicted of killing company executive Koichiro Okawa, 52, by stabbing him multiple times with a kitchen knife on the company premises on the night of Aug 29, 2023, Sankei Shimbun reported.
The defense had asked for a lighter sentence, arguing that the defendant had been threatened by Okawa to pay back money that he did not actually need to repay, and that he had been driven to the brink.
Presiding Judge Masahito Murohashi rejected the defense's argument, saying, "The defendant should have taken measures such as consulting with those around him, but he committed the crime in a reckless manner with strong intent to kill."
The court heard that Uchida attacked Okawa from behind and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest and back, even after he had fallen to the floor.
© Japan Today
3 Comments
Login to comment
YeahRight
Such a light sentence for murder. Surely life imprisonment is called for in such a heinous crime.
At least it wasn't "suspended" for 3 years, which is often the case in the Japanese "justice" system.
Marco
In Italy for something like this you get just a couple of years...
tigerjane
Only yesterday, I read where a man got only 3-year suspended sentence for putting his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter into the washer machine. I have to agree with YeahRight.