The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death sentence imposed on a 35-year-old Malaysian man convicted of killing three people and injuring another during robberies in four prefectures in Japan in 1993.
This marks the first capital punishment ruling by the top court in two years.
Conspiring with three Japanese accomplices, Wong Yeesun stabbed two people to death, shot one person dead and seriously injured another with a knife in the course of stealing 15 million yen in cash and 17 million yen in goods between October and December 1993 in Tokyo, Shizuoka, Shiga and Gunma, according to the ruling.
Wong, a former restaurant employee, and his defense counsel had appealed the March 1998 Tokyo High Court ruling, claiming he had just followed his accomplices when breaking into various locations, including the home of a money lender and a game cafe.
In Monday's ruling at the top court's First Petty Bench, however, presiding Justice Niro Shimada said Wong had "played crucial roles and actively committed the crimes."
"The capital punishment is unavoidable" even if the court considered there was someone taking a bigger lead role than the defendant, he said.
In July 1996, the Tokyo District Court sentenced Wong to death, prompting an appeal.