The Yokohama District Court on Monday cleared a 30-year-old man of murdering his girlfriend at her apartment in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, in December 1993.
Presiding Judge Hiroshi Yamura said that while the accused, Kei Sasaki, had a motive to kill and it was "probable" that he had committed the crime, there is also "reasonable doubt" over his guilt.
The 10-year-old case was reopened in 2001 after the same district court, in its ruling on a damages suit filed by parents of the deceased, 25-year-old Miho Iijima, determined that 30-year-old Sasaki stabbed the woman and set her apartment on fire.