TOKYO (TR) – Last month, the Tokyo District Court convicted Junko Aoki, 66, for working with the president of the gravestone company Kokushodo in the murder of the head priest of Genshoji Temple in Adachi Ward three years ago.
In handing down the 25-year prison term, presiding judge Yuko Ito ruled that Aoki carried out the crime due to her “love for the president, with whom she had a close relationship both professionally and personally.”
Based on the court proceedings, that is quite an understatement.
During the trial, Aoki claimed she was innocent. In proving her claim, the defense presented her diary, which she updated daily.
The pages chronicle her adulterous relationship with Ryuta Saito, the 52-year-old president of Kokushodo. The attempt failed but it surely caused members of the court to blush as the steamy entries were read into the record, reports News Post Seven (Feb. 7).
“Banned from entering”
In November 2024, the same court handed Saito a 25-year term for the same murder of the head priest. In addition to having an affair with him, Aoki worked for Saito at the time of the crime.
On the night of July 22, 2023, Aoki worked with Saito to set 28 charcoal briquettes alight in the underground ossuary of the Genshoji Temple that their firm did business with.
According to the indictment, the air in the ossuary was subsequently filled with enough carbon monoxide to kill the 70-year-old head priest.
Koshodo was involved in the development of a cemetery near Genshoji Temple. However, a conflict arose between the temple and Aoki when the head priest changed the cemetery’s grave sales policy.
A reporter for the a national newspaper says, “Aoki was subsequently informed by the temple that she was ‘banned from entering,’ and it appears that this trouble escalated into the incident.”
“Took revenge”
Aoki is divorced and single. A writer who attended the trial explains to News Post Seven, “She met Saito through work in September 2019 and transferred to Koshodo in 2020. The two reportedly soon developed a romantic relationship. After transferring to the new job, Aoki primarily served as Saito’s secretary.”
After Aoki got into the aforementioned dispute with the head priest of Genshoji Temple, Saito knelt down before the priest to apologize.
The prosecution’s closing argument included a passage stating, “Aoki herself took revenge on the head priest to please her beloved Saito.”
During the trial, the prosecution argued that Saito’s testimony and security camera footage proved that she worked with him to commit the crime.
The defense, on the other hand, argued for Aoki’s innocence, pointing out unnatural aspects of Saito’s testimony and unclear security camera footage.
“We had sex in his new sleeping bag”
The main point of contention in the trial was whether Aoki and Saito conspired to commit the murder. The defense attempted to refute this claim with Aoki’s diary.
The aforementioned writer continues, “Aoki claims to have always kept a detailed diary, which covered both her work and personal life. The seized notebook actually contained entries about the time when Aoki and the head priest had trouble, and the prosecution read out the contents of the diary.”
The defense insisted on the diary’s authenticity while using the fact that there was no mention of the head priest’s murder as evidence of her claim of innocence.
“The defense read out sections from the diary that focused on her feelings toward Saito and their sexual acts they engaged in,” the same writer says.
The defense read out the contents of the diary, dated between 2020 and 2023.
“The president stayed over,” she wrote. “We had sex in his new sleeping bag. We had sex while cuddling on the sofa bed. We took took a bath and I kissed his butt.”
She went on, “Last night I said, ‘I love you’ and ‘I like you a lot.’ I then kissed him up and down [his body].”
The entries also got a bit graphic. “[He ejaculated] once with my mouth.” In another passage, she said it was three times.
“I want to tell him how much I love him,” she wrote. “It’s been 11 days since we last had sex .”
The writer says, “The diary detailed how the two continued their affair even after the July 2023 incident. The defense argued that the diary contained details of sexual acts but no mention of the priest’s death. In fact, there appears to be no mention of murder, let alone charcoal briquettes.”
