A Japanese man, now 89, who spent 47 years of his life on death row was acquitted of murder as retrial confirmed that evidence had been planted in the case and will be given a compensation of 217 million yen ($1.45 million) by Japan’s government for his ordeal. Lawyers say this is the largest-ever payout in a criminal case in the country.

Advertisment

Judge Kunii Koshi, who granted the request on Monday, agreed that Iwao Hakamata, held guilty in 1968 for killing his boss, his boss’s wife, and their two children, had suffered “extremely severe” mental and physical pain, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

Hakamata was himself unfit to attend the hearing and was exempted from all prior hearings because of his mental deterioration.
He lives in the care of his 91-year-old sister Hideko since he was granted a retrial in 2014 and released from prison after spending 46 years behind bars. 

Also read: India researcher legally living in US faces deportation for allegedly 'spreading Hamas propaganda'

Hideko said that decades of imprisonment had wrought irreversible damage on her brother’s mental health. 
“He is living in his own world. Sometimes he smiles happily, but that’s when he’s in his delusion… We have not even discussed the trial with Iwao because of his inability to recognise reality,” she said

Hakamata had retired as a professional boxer in 1961 and got a job at a soybean processing plant in Shizuoka, central Japan.
In 1966, he was arrested by police after his boss, his boss’s wife and their two children were found stabbed to death in their home.
Hakamata was accused of murdering the family, setting fire to their home and stealing 200,000 yen in cash.
He initially denied the murders, but later gave a ‘coerced’ confession, following beatings and interrogations that lasted up to 12 hours a day.

The trial was completed in two years, and he was sentenced to death in a 2-1 decision by judges in 1968.
The dissenting judge reigned six months later, demoralised by his inability to prevent the sentencing.
Hakamata’s lawyers had kept arguing that the DNA recovered from the victims’ clothes did not match his, and alleged that the evidence was planted.

Also read: White House ‘confident’ of winning court battle over deportations

He was granted a rare retrial and released from prison in 2014, but the retrial started only in 2024 due to delayed legal proceedings.
Last September, hundreds of people gathered at a court in Shizuoka where a judge announced his acquittal, to cheers of ‘banzai’, or ‘hurray’ in Japanese.
The case has raised questions about Japan’s justice system, the 10 years’ time taken for a retrial and the allegations of forced confessions.

Hakamata’s lawyers sought the highest compensation possible, arguing that the 47 years in detention, which made him the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, took a heavy toll on his mental health.
The Shizuoka District Court confirmed on Tuesday that Hakamata had been awarded more than 217 million yen–about US$85 per day since he was wrongfully found guilty.

His legal representative Hideyo Ogawa said the compensation was the “highest amount” ever handed out for a wrongful conviction in Japan.
“I think the state (government) has made a mistake that cannot be atoned for with 200 million yen,” the lawyer said, as reported by NHK.
Japan’s criminal justice system has an extremely high conviction rate of 99%, according to the Ministry of Justice website.