Crime & Courts

Iwao Hakamata’s 1966 Murder Case Set for Retrial as Prosecutors Forgo Appeal

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Iwao Hakamata’s sister Hideko, center, and his supporters welcome the Tokyo High Court’s ruling to reopen his trial on March 13.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

18:29 JST, March 20, 2023

Iwao Hakamata’s high-profile 1966 murder case is set to be retried after prosecutors on Monday decided not to file a special appeal against the court’s decision.

The Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office accepted the Tokyo High Court’s ruling to allow a retrial for Hakamata, 87, whose death sentence had been finalized in the case in which four people from the same family were murdered in Shizuoka Prefecture in June 1966.

The prosecutors informed Hakamata’s lawyers of their decision the same day, the deadline for filing the special appeal to the Supreme Court.

Following the high court ruling, Hakamata’s lawyers had requested prosecutors not to file the special appeal.