Hakamata to Receive ¥217 Mil., Possibly Highest Compensation for Wrongful Conviction

The Yomiuri Shimbun

1:00 JST, March 26, 2025

A court decided Monday to award a man wrongfully convicted of murder around ¥217 million in compensation.

The Shizuoka District Court ordered that Iwao Hakamata, who was acquitted in a retrial for the 1966 murder of four people in Shizuoka Prefecture, be compensated ¥217,362,500 as requested, an amount believed to be the highest ever for a wrongful conviction in Japan.

Hakamata, 89, had been in custody for 47 years and 7 months — or 17,389 days — since his arrest in August 1966 until his release in March 2014.

The decision was based on the Criminal Compensation Law, which stipulates that a person found not guilty is to be compensated up to ¥12,500 for each day they were in custody. The district court decided to pay the maximum amount.

The decision pointed out that Hakamata “was detained for a long period and that about 33 years of that time was spent awaiting execution. The mental and physical pain he suffered was extremely severe.”

The court ruled that “the amount of compensation is appropriate” considering that inhumane interrogations were conducted and that the crucial evidence on which his conviction was based — five articles of clothing — had been fabricated by prosecutors.

WEB: Hakamata to Receive ¥217 Mil., Possibly Highest Compensation for Wrongful Conviction; Suffering Was ‘Extremely Severe’

SNS: Iwao Hakamata, who was acquitted of a 1966 murder charge, has been awarded around \217 million, thought to be the highest amount ever for a wrongful conviction in Japan.