Ex-Nomura Securities Employee Gets 18 Years in Robbery Case

Hiroshima, March 3 (Jiji Press)–Hiroshima District Court on Tuesday sentenced a former Nomura Securities Co. employee to 18 years in prison for robbing an elderly client in her 80s and setting her home ablaze in an attempt to kill her in 2024. Presiding Judge Hiromi Kakutani at the court in the western prefecture of Hiroshima handed down the term, short of 20 years demanded by prosecutors, in the lay judge trial of Yusei Kajiwara, 30, who had been dismissed from the major brokerage firm on disciplinary grounds. In the day’s ruling, the presiding judge found that Kajiwara stole cash from a closet in a bedroom while the woman was in a coma from drugs he had administered. The judge concluded that the defendant had the intent to kill the woman as he set fire to the closet knowing she was at high risk of death. While admitting to the theft, the defense argued that the arson was intended to destroy evidence and that Kajiwara did not intend to kill. However, the judge said, “It is difficult to find a reasonable reason” for the claim that he believed only the inside of the closet would burn and that the fire would naturally extinguish itself. The assertion that there was no intent to render her comatose was also described as “unnatural, unreasonable and unreliable.” The judge added, “It is also vicious in that he betrayed the trust of customers by taking advantage of his position at a major securities company.” According to the ruling, Kajiwara broke into the woman’s house in Nishi Ward in the city of Hiroshima on July 28, 2024, stole about 18 million yen in cash, and set fire to the house to kill her. He also stole about 8 million yen in cash from her house between July 22 and 24. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]