A former lawyer was sentenced to four years in prison Monday for defrauding a Tokyo company of some 400 million yen in 1991.

The sentence was imposed on Nobukata Naritomi, 70, a former lawyer with the First Tokyo Lawyers' Association, by the Tokyo District Court. Prosecutors had demanded a five-year prison term for the defendant.

According to the court, Naritomi approached a Tokyo company president in 1990 and talked him into getting his company to obtain the exclusive sales rights in Japan of garbage disposal machines, developed by a company with its headquarters in Central America. Naritomi told him he would serve as an intermediary for the deal.

The defendant got the Tokyo firm to pay $30 million (around 400 million yen) into a Swiss bank account he had opened. This payment was triple the amount of money the acquisition of the sales rights had actually cost.

Naritomi obtained this money by fraud, the court was told.

In handing down the ruling, Judge Megumi Yamamuro said that Naritomi took advantage of public confidence in lawyers, an offense that deserves strong criticism.

The judge also said that he showed little remorse for the crime, making unnatural and unreasonable statements.

10 years for slaying

YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) The Yokohama District Court sentenced a 27-year-old man to 10 years in prison Monday for killing a 45-year-old woman in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture.

According to the court, factory worker Yuji Yamauchi broke into the victim's house at around 6 a.m. on Jan. 19 and killed the woman by beating her in the head and face. Yamauchi and the victim were not acquainted.

Judge Ryuichi Tanaka recognized that the defendant was in a mentally deranged state at the time, experiencing hallucinations caused by paint thinner inhalation.

Tanaka decided, however, that Yamauchi's criminal liability was grave, saying the act was random and its impact on society was large.

The defendant also tried to kill the victim's 71-year-old mother by beating her in the head. The victim's mother died last month, the court said.

Bankers await verdict

OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court said Monday it will hand down a decision March 28 regarding a former president and ex-managing director of the now-defunct Fukutoku Bank, who are charged with aggravated breach of trust.

The defendants -- Koji Oike, 60, and Mutsuo Higashi, 59, -- have been on trial for allegedly violating the Commercial Code by providing some 8.2 billion yen in loans without organizing sufficient security. Both argued in court that they are not guilty of the offense.