TOKYO (TR) – Last month, the Tokyo District Court convicted Junko Aoki, 66, for working with the president of the headstone firm Kokushodo within the homicide of the top priest of Genshoji Temple in Adachi Ward three years in the past.
In handing down the 25-year jail time period, presiding choose Yuko Ito dominated that Aoki carried out the crime resulting from her “love for the president, with whom she had a close relationship both professionally and personally.”
Based on the court docket proceedings, that’s fairly an understatement.
During the trial, Aoki claimed she was harmless. In proving her declare, the protection introduced her diary, which she up to date every day.
The pages chronicle her adulterous relationship with Ryuta Saito, the 52-year-old president of Kokushodo. The try failed nevertheless it absolutely brought about members of the court docket to blush because the steamy entries have been learn into the report, stories News Post Seven (Feb. 7).
“Banned from entering”
In November 2024, the identical court docket handed Saito a 25-year time period for a similar homicide of the top priest. In addition to having an affair with him, Aoki labored for Saito on the time of the crime.
On the night time of July 22, 2023, Aoki labored with Saito to set 28 charcoal briquettes alight within the underground ossuary of the Genshoji Temple that their agency did enterprise with.
According to the indictment, the air within the ossuary was subsequently stuffed with sufficient carbon monoxide to kill the 70-year-old head priest.
Koshodo was concerned within the improvement of a cemetery close to Genshoji Temple. However, a battle arose between the temple and Aoki when the top priest modified the cemetery’s grave gross sales coverage.
A reporter for the a nationwide newspaper says, “Aoki was subsequently informed by the temple that she was ‘banned from entering,’ and it appears that this trouble escalated into the incident.”
“Took revenge”
Aoki is divorced and single. A author who attended the trial explains to News Post Seven, “She met Saito through work in September 2019 and transferred to Koshodo in 2020. The two reportedly soon developed a romantic relationship. After transferring to the new job, Aoki primarily served as Saito’s secretary.”
After Aoki obtained into the aforementioned dispute with the top priest of Genshoji Temple, Saito knelt down earlier than the priest to apologize.
The prosecution’s closing argument included a passage stating, “Aoki herself took revenge on the head priest to please her beloved Saito.”
During the trial, the prosecution argued that Saito’s testimony and safety digicam footage proved that she labored with him to commit the crime.
The protection, however, argued for Aoki’s innocence, mentioning unnatural features of Saito’s testimony and unclear safety digicam footage.
“We had sex in his new sleeping bag”
The major level of rivalry within the trial was whether or not Aoki and Saito conspired to commit the homicide. The protection tried to refute this declare with Aoki’s diary.
The aforementioned author continues, “Aoki claims to have always kept a detailed diary, which covered both her work and personal life. The seized notebook actually contained entries about the time when Aoki and the head priest had trouble, and the prosecution read out the contents of the diary.”
The protection insisted on the diary’s authenticity whereas utilizing the truth that there was no point out of the top priest’s homicide as proof of her declare of innocence.
“The defense read out sections from the diary that focused on her feelings toward Saito and their sexual acts they engaged in,” the identical author says.
The protection learn out the contents of the diary, dated between 2020 and 2023.
“The president stayed over,” she wrote. “We had sex in his new sleeping bag. We had sex while cuddling on the sofa bed. We took took a bath and I kissed his butt.”
She went on, “Last night I said, ‘I love you’ and ‘I like you a lot.’ I then kissed him up and down [his body].”
The entries additionally obtained a bit graphic. “[He ejaculated] once with my mouth.” In one other passage, she mentioned it was thrice.
“I want to tell him how much I love him,” she wrote. “It’s been 11 days since we last had sex .”
The author says, “The diary detailed how the two continued their affair even after the July 2023 incident. The defense argued that the diary contained details of sexual acts but no mention of the priest’s death. In fact, there appears to be no mention of murder, let alone charcoal briquettes.”