JAPAN MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDERING RESTAURANT OWNER, SHOOTING RAILWAY WORKER

an appeal court in Japan sentenced a unemployed man to death for murder and robbery. Tokuhisa Kumagai, 66, had been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Tokyo High Court, which upheld an earlier appeal against a Tokyo District Court ruling. However, presiding Judge Shogo Takahashi overturned that decision and sentenced him to death. Kumagai shot dead Fumio Shimizu, 77, the owner of a Chinese restaurant in Yokohama, on May 29, 2004, and stole 440,000 yen. He also shot a railway station worker during a robbery at JR Tokyo Station on May 6, 2004.