Romania's top court has rejected an appeal by a man found guilty of murdering a Japanese university student last year, letting a lower court's sentence of life in prison stand, the Japanese Embassy in Romania said.

The Bucharest Court of Appeals gave the life sentence to Nicolae Vlad in March for a series of crimes, including the murder of Yurika Masuno in August 2012 and two other slayings. On Monday, the High Court of Cassation and Justice dismissed Vlad's appeal.

Masuno, a student at the University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo, went to Romania to teach Japanese. Judicial authorities determined that Vlad approached her after she arrived at Bucharest airport at night, offering to help her go to a train station in the city and getting in the taxi with her.

Vlad got out of the taxi with Masuno while they were still near the airport and took her to a nearby wooded area where he raped and strangled her, according to the authorities.