A Japanese high court branch on Friday acquitted a 60-year-old man in a high-profile retrial over the 1986 murder of a 15-year-old junior high school girl in the city of Fukui.
The acquittal of Shoshi Maekawa, who was previously found guilty and served a prison sentence for the crime, was handed down by the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court, presided over by Judge Keisuke Masuda.
In the country, since the end of World War II, at least 21 individuals in 19 cases, including Maekawa, have been acquitted for murder in retrials.
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