Tag - iwao-hakamata

 
 

IWAO HAKAMATA

Hideko Hakamata (center) and lawyers representing her younger brother, Iwao Hakamata, pose with a banner that reads "Iwao Hakamata verdict not guilty" as they leave the Shizuoka District Court on Thursday after the ruling was delivered.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 26, 2024
In rare retrial, Shizuoka court rules ex-boxer not guilty of 1966 murders
Iwao Hakamata, the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner, has maintained his innocence for decades.
Iwao Hakamata in March 2023 in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. Hakamata was convicted in 1968 over the fatal stabbings of a couple and their children two years earlier. He has pleaded his innocence throughout his trial, maintaining that his confession was coerced.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 25, 2024
In Japan, the road to exoneration takes decades
Defense lawyers’ extremely limited access to evidence and prosecutors’ right to appeal a court order for a retrial result in a long, drawn-out process.
Iwao Hakamata's older sister Hideko (left) marches to the Shizuoka District Court in the city of Shizuoka on Wednesday for a retrial of her younger brother Iwao, who had been on death row over a 1966 murder case.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 22, 2024
Trial ruling date for man accused of 1966 murder set for September
Iwao Hakamata, who in a rare example is being retried over a 1966 murder case, will be given a verdict on Sept. 26.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 10, 2023
Shizuoka prosecutors to push for guilty verdict in Hakamata retrial
Prosecutors have said they plan to argue that the March retrial decision by the Tokyo High Court was “groundless.”
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Mar 24, 2023
Iwao Hakamata: The former pro-boxer fighting for exoneration, with help from his sister
The day of his arrest forever changed the course of Hakamata's life, but it was also the beginning of a long, drawn out fight for exoneration.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 20, 2023
Tokyo prosecutors decide not to appeal Iwao Hakamata retrial decision
The case will now be sent to the Shizuoka District Court, with a high possibility that Hakamata will be exonerated over murders in 1966.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 17, 2023
Prosecutors to challenge decision to reopen Iwao Hakamata murder case
The Tokyo High Court decided to reopen the case after the Supreme Court canceled the high court's previous ruling rejecting the retrial plea by Iwao Hakamata.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 13, 2023
Tokyo High Court orders retrial in 1966 Iwao Hakamata murder case
After nearly six decades, 10 court decisions and more than 30 years on death row, the court on Monday ordered a retrial for the 87-year-old convicted murderer and former pro-boxer.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 6, 2023
Tokyo High Court to decide whether to reopen Iwao Hakamata murder case
The decision on whether to reopen the high-profile 1966 Shizuoka Prefecture murder case will come on March 13, defense lawyers in the case have said.

Longform

A woman passes an "akichi" (vacant lot) in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo. The capital is littered with such small lots in part because of Japan's aging and shrinking population.
Dealing with rising land vacancies as Japan shrinks