Kazuyoshi Miura was freed Wednesday after being acquitted by the Tokyo High Court of conspiring to murder his wife in 1981 to cash in on her life insurance policies.
Imprisoned since 1985 on a separate charge of attacking his wife Kazumi, then 28, in Los Angeles three months before she was shot to death there, Miura, 50, could not find solace in the acquittal.
"Even considering today's ruling, I cannot say I feel happy from the bottom of my soul," Miura said in a statement released by his lawyers. "Why is it my freedom had to be taken away for nearly 13 years to prove my innocence? I've survived these last 13 years on the belief that my innocence would definitely be proved."