The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence for a 51-year-old man who was convicted of killing five people between 1992 and 1993.
Finalizing the death penalty for Yoshinori Ueda, presiding Justice Kazuko Yokoo said, "The defendant killed five innocent people for selfish reasons, and the acts were cruel and inhumane.
"The defendant tended to commit murder casually, and we have no choice but to uphold the death sentence," said Yokoo, who sits on the top court's No. 1 petty bench.
Ueda appealed to the top court after the Osaka High Court in March 2001 upheld the sentence meted out by the Osaka District Court in March 1998.
Ueda was convicted of killing Hiroshi Seto, 23, an acquaintance, in June 1992 in Shiojiri, Nagano Prefecture, by injecting him with muscle relaxant obtained from a veterinarian.
Between July 1992 and October 1993, Ueda used similar means to murder four dog lovers -- two men and two women -- and buried their bodies in Shiojiri. He was involved in financial disputes with the victims over the expansion of a dog-breeding field.
Ueda pleaded not guilty, claiming he had been forced by investigators to confess. But the district and high courts in Osaka ruled his confession to the slayings was credible.