The Osaka High Court upheld a death sentence against...

The Osaka High Court upheld a death sentence against a former gang leader for robbing and murdering a wealthy man and his daughter in Kobe and later burning their bodies in 1991.
The high court upheld the Kobe District Court's January 27, 1999 death sentence for Masahira Yamaguchi, 54, the former leader of Yamakatsu Sogyo, a gangster group affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest underworld crime syndicate. He was found guilty of the deaths of Akira Okada, 75, and his daughter Yumiko, 42.
The high court also upheld life imprisonment for Masami Fujinaka, a former member of the crime group, and another former member, who was a minor at the time, for his role in the murder-robbery case in Hyogo Prefecture. Kengo Asada was also sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role.
Presiding Judge Kazuhisa Shirai said the crime was well planned and brutal, rejecting Yamaguchi's arguments that he was innocent.
According to the ruling, the four conspired to rob Okada in July 1991, took about 200,000 yen from Okada and his daughter Yumiko and took them by force to their group's office in Himeji following the orders of Yamaguchi.
The four men strangled the father and daughter at the office and disposed of their bodies in an incinerator prepared in advance after Okada refused to comply with the gangsters' demand for more cash, the ruling said.