Prosecutors sought the death sentence Thursday for one of four men accused of robbing and murdering a family of three in March 2010 at their home in Nagano and dumping their bodies.
The defendant, Kaoru Ikeda, 35, is the second of the four to be tried. The first, 40-year-old Tomohiro Matsubara, was sentenced to death in March at the Nagano District Court and his case is currently under appeal before the Tokyo High Court.
In their closing argument, the prosecution said Ikeda's actions resulted in the loss of three lives, and that there was no room for leniency.
Ikeda stands accused of conspiring with the three others to strangle his employer, Fumio Kin, the 62-year-old owner of a construction company, as well as Kin's 30-year-old son, Yoshiaki, and the son's common-law wife, Yukiko Kusumi, 26, on March 24 last year, robbing them of ¥4.16 million in cash.