A man who as a youth was convicted and served time for his role in a slaying that shocked the nation pleaded guilty Wednesday to confining and wounding a male acquaintance in May.
He denied, however, that he had terrorized his victim by claiming he had murdered someone on a previous occasion and knew how to beat the rap.
During his first trial session at the Tokyo District Court, 33-year-old Jo Kamisaku, described by prosecutors as a gangster, said, "It's true that I beat him, but the part (in the prosecutors' statement) about what I said (about having killed someone) is not true."
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