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Man on death row over murders of Filipino hostesses dies in detention

TOKYO (TR) – A man on death row for murdering two Filipino women has died due to chronic kidney failure while in detention in the capital, the Ministry of Justice said on Sunday.

According to the ministry, medical personnel pronounced Hiroshi Nozaki, 61, dead at the Tokyo Detention House at 12:42 a.m. on Sunday, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Dec. 13).

He began suffering from kidney complications in 2018. Due to blood flow stagnation, a catheter was inserted in November. He also began receiving an antibiotic.

Nozaki refused to continue receiving the dialysis on December 11. He lost consciousness the following night.

The number of death row inmates in Japan is now 109.

Hiroshi Nozaki

Murder of Elda Longakit Yoneda

On April 22, 1999, Nozaki suffocated Elda Longakit Yoneda, 27, with a futon at an apartment in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

He also dismembered her corpse and dumped the body parts in a canal in Yokohama.

Yoneda was a bar hostess living in Soka City, Saitama Prefecture. Nozaki was dating her at the time.

“I got jealous and quarreled with her after she told me stories about her regular patrons,” he told police at the time, according to Kyodo News.

In 2000, a court handed Nozaki a prison term of three years and six months for abandoning Yoneda’s body.

Since Nozaki declined to confess to killing Yoneda, police did not accuse him of murder.

Honiefaith Ratilla Kamiosawa

Murder of Honiefaith Ratilla Kamiosawa

On the night of April 6, 2008, Nozaki telephoned police from a road in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture. He had just attempted suicide by slashing his wrists.

While he received treatment from medical personnel, he divulged the location of parts of the body of 22-year-old Honiefaith Ratilla Kamiosawa.

Officers arriving at the World Trade Center building in Minato Ward found about 10 parts of her body inside a coin-operated locker. Her head was missing, police said at the time.

At the time, Nozaki was living with Kamiosawa, who worked at a hostess club in the Roppongi nightlife quarter. They shared an apartment in the Odaiba area with her two cousins.

The cousins were also hostesses. On April 3, 2008, one of the cousins returned home after Kamiosawa failed to arrive at work. Upon her arrival, she found Nozaki carrying a bag containing Kamiosawa’s flesh.

Nozaki’s whereabouts were unknown until he was found with his wrists slashed in Kawaguchi three days later.

Investigators, who found Kamiosawa’s head in a canal on April 11, concluded that Nozaki cut up her body in the bathtub. He then washed her body parts in the laundry machine before dumping them in various locations in order to cover up the crime.

Police later accused Nozaki of murder. During the investigation, Nozaki confessed to killing Yoneda.

Courts

In 2009, the Tokyo District Court handed Nozaki a life-in-prison term for killing Kamiosawa. He was handed a 14-year term for the murder of Yoneda.

“I admit to everything,” he reportedly said during the trial.

Presiding judge Ikuro Toishi described Nozaki’s crimes as “dreadful and inhuman” but added that he could still be rehabilitated.

The following year, the Tokyo High Court upheld the 14-year sentence. However, the court handed him a death sentence for the murder of Kamiosawa.

The defense appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court. In 2012, the court upheld the death sentence.