the Supreme Court of Japan upheld a high court decision sentencing...

the Supreme Court of Japan upheld a high court decision sentencing Yoshio Yamasaki, a 69-year-old man, to death for murdering two people for insurance money. The top court's No. 3 Petty Bench dismissed an appeal from Yamasaki, a former factory worker, who was given capital punishment for murdering a 49-year-old housewife in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, in 1985, and a 48-year-old man in Kagawa Prefecture, southwestern Japan, in 1990, conspiring with acquaintances and obtaining some 7 million yen in insurance money. 
Presiding Judge Toyozo Ueda said in handing down the ruling, ''The crimes were cold-blooded, based on careful preparation. The circumstances after the crime is also inhuman as the defendant disguised one of the bodies to look like suicide by hanging, and throwing another body off the cliff.''
In February 1997, the Takamatsu District Court sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment, saying he could be rehabilitated, but the Takamatsu High Court in October 2000 sentenced him to death, overturning the district court's ruling.