Member-only story
She Searched for “Perfect Crime.” A Japanese Court Found Her Not Guilty of Murder
Prosecutors say Sudo Saki killed the “Don Juan of Kishu.” So why couldn’t they couldn’t prove it in court?
Japanese prosecutors have an impressive — some would say unrealistic and unjust — 99.9% conviction rate. If they take a case to trial, it’s because they have a high degree of certainty they’re gonna win.
In 2018, 77-year-old industrialist Nozaki Kosuke (野崎幸助) died in Tonabe, Wakayama Prefecture from what police determined was an overdose of amphetamines. The primary suspect: His wife/sugar baby, Sudo Saki (須藤早貴), who at the time was 22 years old — 55 years his junior.
Prosecutors thought they had their woman. But this week, Sudo became part of that rare 0.1% of Japanese defendants who are found not guilty. It was a shaky case from the start — and as the trial proceeded, it only got worse for the prosecution.
The murder of the “Don Juan of Kishu”
Nozaki was born in Tanobe in 1941, during World War II. His work as a door-to-door salesman selling condoms — a rarely-used product in Japan in his time — earned him a…
