Lawyer: Japan should avoid murder case

LOS ANGELES -- The lawyer for a Japanese businessman arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting his wife here in 1981 said Monday he would formally urge the Japanese government not to cooperate with American investigators.

The businessman, Kazuyoshi Miura, was arrested Friday in the U.S. territory of Saipan as he tried to pass through immigration control at the airport to take a flight home. Miura, 60, was convicted in Japan in 1994 of killing his wife, Kazumi Miura, but the verdict was overturned 10 years ago.

"Given that this case has been closed in Japan, the Justice Ministry and Japanese police should no longer have to respond to requests from the police for evidence or to cooperate with the investigation," said Miuri's lawyer, Shinichiro Hironaka.

Miura and his wife were visiting Los Angeles on Nov. 18, 1981, when they were shot in a parking lot. Miura was hit in the right leg, while his 28-year-old wife was shot in the head. The shooting caused an international uproar, in part because he blamed the attack on robbers, reinforcing Japanese perceptions of America as violent.

The arrest came after cold-case detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department worked with authorities in Saipan and in Guam, police said in a statement. Police did not make details on the arrest available.

At a bail hearing Monday in Saipan, Miura told the court the killing "took place several decades ago, and it is unlikely that I will destroy evidence or run away," according to the Kyodo News Agency.

The court, however, denied him bail. A preliminary hearing was set for March 5, said Rosie Ada, deputy clerk at Superior Court. An arraignment was also slated for March 10, she said.

Earlier Monday, Japan's top government spokesman said Japan would cooperate with the U.S. in the investigation of Miura if necessary.

"Just because he was acquitted doesn't mean we cannot cooperate in investigations (in the U.S.)" said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura. "We haven't received a request for cooperation. We will consider it when we receive a request," he told a regular press conference.

The victim's mother said Sunday that she never gave up hope that the case would be resolved.

"I burned incense for my daughter and prayed at a family Buddhist altar, telling her that Americans will put an end to the case, so let's hold onto our hopes and wait," Yasuko Sasaki told Japan public broadcaster NHK.

Miura reportedly collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from life insurance policies he had taken out on his wife. In addition, an actress who claimed to be Miura's lover told a newspaper that Miura had hired her to kill his wife in their hotel room on a trip to Los Angeles three months before the shootings.

Miura was arrested in Japan in 1985 on suspicion of assaulting his wife in the hotel incident. He was convicted of attempted murder and while serving a six-year sentence was charged under Japanese law in 1988 with his wife's murder.

Miura was convicted of that charge in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison. Four years later, a Japanese court overturned the sentence.

"I think U.S. investigators have all along believed that they can make the case with the evidence they had already collected," Tsutomu Sakaguchi, a Tokyo Metropolitan Police investigator at the time of the shooting, told TV Asahi in an interview Sunday. "If they have a new evidence, that could be a decisive step."