2 Men Get 30 Years over Tokyo Couple Murder

Tokyo, July 3 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo District Court on Friday sentenced two men to 30 years in prison for killing a Tokyo couple who ran restaurants in the Ueno district in the Japanese capital and damaging their bodies in 2024. Prosecutors had sought indefinite terms for the defendants, Hikaru Sasaki, 30, and Ryoken Hirayama, 27, in the lay judge trial. Five more people, including the victims’ first daughter, Manami Takarajima, 33, and her common-law husband, Seiha Sekine, 34, have also been indicted. Sasaki and Hirayama are believed to have delivered Sekine’s directions to perpetrators. Friday’s rulings were the first over the case. According to the ruling, Sasaki and Hirayama conspired with the other five to strangle Ryutaro Takarajima, 55, and his wife, Sachiko, 56, at an unoccupied house in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward in April 2024. They are suspected of later transporting the bodies to the town of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, eastern Japan, and burned them. Presiding Judge Masataka Nakagawa said that the responsibilities of Sasaki and Hirayama were “heavy” because they actively played a role that was crucial for the crime although they had no connections with the victims. The two were given fixed prison terms as they were neither the organizers nor the masterminds of the crime, the judge explained. Still, a sentence of 30 years is the maximum fixed prison term in Japan. The defense side admitted the charges and argued that their sentences should be 20 years. Hirayama claimed that he simply obeyed the directions. But the judge rejected this, saying that the defendant received the largest amount of money by deciding how to distribute the rewards from the crime and selecting the place to abandon the bodies. The dates of the trials of the remaining five defendants have not yet been decided. At a related pretrial hearing at Tokyo District Court on June 24, Sekine claimed that he is “absolutely innocent.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]