National / Crime & Legal

Man appeals life sentence over murder of 7-year-old girl in Niigata

Kyodo

NIIGATA – A man filed an appeal Wednesday after he was handed a life sentence earlier this month for the 2018 murder of a 7-year-old girl in the city of Niigata, his lawyer said.

The defense team for Haruka Kobayashi, 25, had requested a sentence with a maximum 10 years in prison during a trial at the Niigata District Court, claiming that he had no intention of killing or molesting the girl, while suggesting he may have been mentally ill at the time.

According to the ruling, Kobayashi intentionally hit the second-grader with his car while she was on her way home from school on May 7 last year. He molested her in his car and strangled her to death before abandoning her body on a railway track so it would appear that she had been hit and killed by a train.

The ruling, issued on Dec. 4, noted that Kobayashi did not plan to kill the girl initially, but was “aware that (strangling her) carried a high risk of killing her.”

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, saying the accused showed no care for the girl’s life.

GET THE BEST OF THE JAPAN TIMES IN FIVE EASY PIECES WITH TAKE 5

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

LATEST NATIONAL STORIES

Nursing care workers from Myanmar set to participate in Japan's foreign trainee program are pictured before departing from Yangon in January last year.

Ministry to extend provisional certification for care course graduates: As part of efforts to alleviate a labor shortage in the elderly care sector, the welfare ministry plans to extend special transitional measures to fiscal 2026 that grant graduates of care course...

Even as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump's "bromance" appears rock-solid, both countries need to be on the same page on major geopolitical issues — especially where their interests may not so perfectly align.

The Japan-U.S. alliance is stronger than ever, but that doesn't mean it's on autopilot: When the Japan-U.S. security treaty was revised 60 years ago, nobody expected that it would become one of the most remarkable security alliances in history. The treaty, which is the cente...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Mary Jean Eisenhower, a granddaughter of former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, join other officials as they break a barrel of sake to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Japan-U.S. security treaty in Tokyo on Sunday.

Trump touts U.S.-Japan alliance on 60th anniversary of security treaty, but urges Tokyo to contri...: U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday expressed hope that Japan will contribute more to its alliance with the United States as he issued a statement marking the 60th anniversary of the signing...