Many foreign workers head for Japan with the promise of a better life. But for Govinda Prasad Mainali the dream turned to tragedy as he awaits a ruling by the Supreme Court over a murder charge.

It was in a cell, far from his homeland of Nepal, that he saw his wife, Radha, for the first time in eight years.

"I don't know what I'll say, but I may shed tears when I see him," Radha said through an interpreter before walking into the Tokyo Detention House in the capital's Katsushika Ward on Thursday.