JAPAN. MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF 2 IN FUKUSHIMA

the Fukushima District Court's Koriyama branch sentenced 57-year-old Minoru Watanabe to death for the murder of two people in 2001 in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture. The court said Watanabe played a leading role in the murders, dismissing his argument that he played only a subordinate role to others. Watanabe was one of six people indicted in the case.
Watanabe was convicted of killing Miyoko Nakajima, a 77-year-old woman, by hitting her with a car in June 2001 in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, and receiving some 2.3 million yen as his share of insurance money the group collected on the woman's death. The court also found him guilty of killing Katsushige Umino, 63, in September 2001 in the town of Miharu. Umino had been a former member of the murder-for-insurance ring before defecting. Watanabe also stole money from the dead man, the court ruled.