<figure id="attachment_277637" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-277637" style="width: 789px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="398baf0d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/11/2022112814547.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-277637" class="wp-caption-text">Defendant Maruyama was interviewed by the press at his wife&#8217;s funeral in September &#8217;21 (Image: Kyodo News)</figcaption></figure>
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<p> The defendant, who was an active member of the Diet, plans to plead not guilty to his own serious allegations.</p>
<p> Pre-trial proceedings began on December 20 at the Nagano District Court for Daisuke Maruyama, 49, a former prefectural assembly member who was arrested and charged with suffocating his wife to death. According to the indictment, Maruyama allegedly strangled his wife, Kimi (then 47), to death at their home, which also served as a sake brewery in Shiojiri City, before dawn on September 29, 2009. However, according to the local Nagano Asahi Broadcasting Corporation and other sources, the defense plans to plead not guilty at the trial, which will begin next year, saying that the defendant was at a Diet member&#8217;s office building at the time and was not at the scene of the crime.</p>
<p> FRIDAY Digital&#8221; reported on this puzzling case in detail in an article distributed on November 30, 2010, shortly after Maruyama&#8217;s arrest. We would like to recount the whole story of the trouble that took more than a year until his arrest, and Maruyama&#8217;s surprising voice (some parts have been corrected).</p>
<h2> Near the vault on the first floor: &#8230;&#8230;</h2>
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<p> An incumbent councilor was caught for murdering his wife.</p>
<p> On November 28, 2010, the Nagano Prefectural Police arrested Maruyama, a member of the Nagano Prefectural Assembly, on suspicion of murder. Maruyama was the chairman of the Prefectural Assembly&#8217;s General Affairs, Planning, and Police Committee and was serving his second term at the time. He was also the owner of Shokame Sake Brewery (Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture), a long-established sake brewery dating back to the Meiji era.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The incident was discovered shortly after 6:30 a.m. on September 29, 2009. Maruyama&#8217;s wife, Kimi, was found lying on her back on the first floor of their home and office next to the brewery, near the safe. Her son found her and called the police. She was immediately pronounced dead. As a result of the autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation due to strangulation.</span></p>
<p> The prefectural police set up an investigation headquarters at the Shiojiri police station to investigate the murder with 140 officers and asked for information.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The investigation was difficult due to the lack of physical evidence. The investigation was narrowed down little by little, based on interviews in the neighborhood and analysis of security camera footage. Finally, more than a year after the incident, we were able to arrest Maruyama. Maruyama had denied committing the crime at the time.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Shocking statement made just before the arrest"></div>
<figure id="attachment_277639" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-277639" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4e6a638d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/11/2022112814177.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-277639" class="wp-caption-text">Maruyama responds to an interview with Kyodo News, showing a photo of his wife (Image: Kyodo News)</figcaption></figure>
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<p> In September 2010, just prior to his arrest, Maruyama was responding to a media gathering. The first he heard of the incident was a phone call from his son around 7:00 a.m. saying, &#8220;My mother is in trouble. He commented that he wanted to know what had happened, rather than punishing the culprit, because he had not been able to catch him. As for the couple&#8217;s relationship, he said, &#8220;I think it&#8217;s normal. I think it&#8217;s weird for a couple to be on good terms for decades,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> As for his own alibi, he explained, &#8220;I was at the prefectural assembly (on the day of the incident). On the day of the incident, I was staying at a Diet member&#8217;s house in Nagano City in order to attend a meeting of the prefectural assembly.</span><span class="strongInContent"> It is confirmed that on the night of September 28, the day before the incident, Maruyama had been drinking with his colleagues and was at the assembly hall until around 11:30 pm.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> However, according to the driving data and the drive recorder, Maruyama is believed to have traveled more than two hours to his house in Shiojiri City, about 80 km away from the house. The police believed that he returned to the assembly hall after killing his wife in the early hours of the 29th.</span></p>
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<p> Around the safe at the crime scene, there were marks left by someone who had entered the room with their feet on the ground. It is believed that the robbery was disguised as a robbery. No details are known as to the motive for the crime.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> It seems certain that the business situation of Shokame Brewery, of which Maruyama was the president, was not in good shape. The police were investigating the couple as if they were having some kind of trouble.</span></p>
<p> Maruyama plans to plead not guilty at his trial, which is scheduled to begin at the beginning of 2012. What will he have to say?</p>
<figure id="attachment_277640" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-277640" style="width: 6000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="bd74290b"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/11/jpp039331275.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-277640" class="wp-caption-text"> Maruyama&#8217;s home and office, the scene of the incident (Image: Jiji Press)</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_277641" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-277641" style="width: 3618px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d17f155f"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/11/jpp043707025.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-277641" class="wp-caption-text"> Maruyama at the Nagano Prefectural Assembly (Image: Jiji Press)</figcaption></figure>


 Kyodo News Agency Jiji Press

 The defendant, an incumbent politician, was arrested on suspicion of murder. He is alleged to have murdered his wife in the office of his brewery in September '21.' This is the defendant's flesh-and-blood account of the whole mysterious case, in which he is expected to plead not guilty in a trial that will begin in 2012.

[A married couple who have been close for decades is sickening]&#8230;Former prefectural assemblyman who pleaded not guilty in the suffocation death of his wife, &#8220;Surprised flesh and blood just before his arrest.&#8221;

[A married couple who have been close for decades is sickening]…Former prefectural assemblyman who pleaded not guilty in the suffocation death of his wife, “Surprised flesh and blood just before his arrest.”

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