Differences between the Japanese and U.S. criminal justice systems made it possible for the Los Angeles Police Department to arrest Kazuyoshi Miura for the 1981 fatal shooting of his wife in California, despite being acquitted of her slaying in Japan, an expert says.
Shinichi Shima, a criminal defense attorney and professor at Surugadai Law School in Tokyo, said that while Japan's Penal Code applies to any Japanese who commits a crime anywhere in the world, U.S. law covers anyone suspected of committing a crime in that country.
Thus a Japanese who commits murder in California is therefore subject to both Japanese and California laws, said Shima, an expert on the U.S. criminal justice system.