Man murdered woman and her grandmother after being banned from ear-cleaning salon

Public prosecutors in Japan on Monday requested the death penalty for a man on trial over the murder of a Tokyo ear-cleaning salon employee and her grandmother, marking the first time in a lay judge trial for the death sentence to be demanded. The man, 42-year-old Koji Hayashi, is charged with murdering 21-year-old Miho Ejiri and her 78-year-old grandmother Yoshie Suzuki.

According to the indictment and prosecutors' opening statements in the trial, Hayashi broke into Ejiri's home in Tokyo's Minato Ward at about 8:50 a.m. on Aug. 3, 2009, and stabbed her grandmother at least 16 times, killing her. He then allegedly used a different knife to stab Ejiri five to six times in the neck on the second floor of the home, causing her to die about a month later.



Hayashi was a regular customer at the ear-cleaning salon where Ejiri had worked. Public prosecutors said that Hayashi had repeatedly asked Ejiri to meet him outside the salon and stated that his motive for the attack was anger from being banned from the establishment.

During his trial Hayashi denied that he had any romantic attachment to Ejiri, but said, "I was in despair after being banned, and felt like I had been driven into a corner." A ruling on the case is expected on Nov. 1, after four days of deliberations.