The Osaka District Court sentenced a 44-year-old man to life in prison Wednesday for raping or attempting to rape 28 women and girls from 2001 to 2006 in Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo and Nara prefectures, as well as robbing some of his victims.
Kenji Ikeda, a former moneylender, "has committed extraordinarily heinous crimes, has a strong recidivist tendency and completely lacks a normal sense of morality," Judge Hiroshi Akiyama said.
"While committing the crimes to sate his sexual desire, he sought to rob his victims of their money and other possessions because he lacked cash," the judge said.
According to the court, Ikeda sometimes disguised himself as a gas inspector to be admitted into women's homes or entered unlocked apartments inhabited by women in the four prefectures between June 2001 and February 2006.