LAPD Nets A Japanese Cold Case Killer

Businessman Kazuyoshi Miura Will Be Extradited To The U.S. For The 1981 Death Of His Wife

(AP)  More than a quarter-century after a Japanese tourist was killed and her husband injured in a downtown attack that sparked an international uproar, the man will be visiting again - as the suspect.

The Los Angeles Police Department, which had once vowed to track down whomever was responsible for the 1981 shooting, announced Friday that cold case detectives had arrested Kazuyoshi Miura in the U.S. territory of Saipan. Los Angeles detectives had been working with law enforcement there and in Guam.

"A murder suspect who has been eluding (the) dragnet has been finally captured," the LAPD said in a statement. "Miura's extradition is pending."

Miura was convicted in Japan in 1994 of the murder of his wife, Kazumi Miura, but the verdict was overturned by the country's high courts.

Department spokeswoman Officer April Harding said no other details were available. It was not known whether Miura had been assigned an attorney.

Shinichi Yamamoto, vice consul with the Japanese consulate in Los Angeles, said he could not comment directly on the arrest.

Miura and his wife were visiting Los Angeles on Nov. 18, 1981, when they were shot in a parking lot. Miura was hit in the right leg, while his 28-year-old wife was shot in the head.

His wife remained in a coma and was sent in an Air Force hospital jet to Japan, where she eventually died. Miura blamed street robbers for the attack and railed from his hospital bed against what he called the violent city.

The incident sparked an international furor because it reinforced Japanese stereotypes of violence in the U.S. at a time when the city was preparing for the 1984 Olympics and was particularly sensitive about its overseas image.

Miura, a clothing importer who traveled regularly to the U.S., had said he would write then-President Ronald Reagan and then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. and urge them to make the city safer.

"Many young Japanese will be coming to the U.S. with their dreams in their hearts," Miura said at the time, according to the Los Angeles Times. "I strongly hope this accident will never occur again."

In 1984, however, Miura's image as a grieving husband was tarnished by a series of news articles in Japan.

Miura reportedly collected about $1.4 million at today's exchange rate on life insurance policies he had taken out on his wife. In addition, an actress who claimed to be Miura's lover told a Japanese newspaper that Miura had hired her to kill his wife at their hotel on a trip to L.A. three months before the shootings.

Miura was arrested in 1985 on suspicion of assaulting his wife with intent to kill her for insurance money in the hotel incident. An indictment said he asked actress Michiko Yazawa to kill his wife with a hammer, and he was convicted of attempted murder.

While serving a six-year sentence for that crime, Miura was charged in 1988 under Japanese law with his wife's murder. He was convicted of that charge in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison.

Four years later, however, a Japanese high court overturned the sentence, throwing out a lower court's determination that Miura conspired with a friend in Los Angeles to kill his wife.

[jegibbons]

Does anyone believe Miura''s young wife will receive
justice in an L A court when she coudn''t get justice in Japan?
This guy is a business acquaintance of OJ Simpson.

[sevenveils]

Spam - kaly1984

[timothyone-2009]

But I bet he''s good at math!