The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday reduced a former TV Asahi Corp. employee's prison term to 10 years from 12 for a series of rapes and thefts in 2002.

Junichi Okabe, 41, broke into flats late at night or early in the morning and raped three women, threatening the victims with a knife.

He also stole about 600,000 yen and keys after breaking into apartments in Tokyo's Shibuya and Setagaya wards between January and May 2002.

The Tokyo District Court found Okabe guilty in November and gave him a 12-year prison term. In reducing the sentence, the high court noted that Okabe had reached an out-of-court settlement with one of the rape victims.