Yuji Kubota, a former insurance salesman who tried...

Yuji Kubota, a former insurance salesman who tried to fake his own death, was sentenced to die by the Kushiro District Court, Japan, for murdering a couple that had taken out a policy with his firm. Kubota, 59, was convicted of stabbing Katsuji Yada, 61, and his wife Kazue, 56, to death on October 21, 1988, in the city of Kitami, Hokkaido. Kubota had admitted to the charge in the first hearing of his trial, but later said he was innocent. The Yadas had signed an insurance contract with the company Kubota worked for, and he murdered them to prevent his illegal sales methods from becoming known, the court ruled. In November 1989, Kubota tried to fake his suicide by pushing a car into the sea off the city of Abashiri. He then left Hokkaido. After wandering around the Kanto region, he was arrested in December 2002 in Yokohama, 10 months before the expiry of the statute of limitations for the murders.