[Honjo Insurance Murder] Shigeru Yagi Speaks Out 25 Years on Death Row

“President, when is the next press conference?”

On March 26, 2000, death row inmate Shigeru Yagi (75, 50 at the time of his arrest) appeared on the outside stairs of the Honjo police station in Saitama Prefecture for his transfer, where reporters called out to him like this.

Two men, whom the lover was forced to have a fake marriage with, died under suspicious circumstances

Shigeru Yagi, considered the mastermind behind the Honjo insurance murder, had three women—T, M, and A, who were hostesses and also his lovers at a pub he owned—marry regular customers in fake marriages, with a total of 1.5 billion yen in insurance policies taken out. Of these regular customers, two died under suspicious circumstances, and one received 300 million yen in insurance payouts.

Yagi is accused of murdering these regular customers by administering poison from aconite, cold medicine, and large amounts of alcohol, and was sentenced to death in July 2008 for two murders and one attempted murder. Among his three accomplices, A has already been released, M died of illness in prison in 2009, and T, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, is still serving time.

However, Yagi has consistently claimed his innocence and continues to request a retrial.

Before the case was fully exposed, Yagi gained fame when he held a paid press conference for the media, with footage of the event airing on TV daily. The press conference began on July 13, 1999, with the first session held at a former Filipino pub where Yagi answered questions with a microphone for a fee of 6,000 yen per journalist. The second session was held at a tavern Yagi owned, where drinks were unlimited for 3,000 yen, and it was also referred to as a social gathering.

Having worked in the entertainment industry for a long time, Yagi was adept at handling customers—and, by extension, the media. When the number of TV cameras began to decrease, he would say, “There are fewer people today, so should I give a little extra?” and get up on stage to perform karaoke. When that footage aired, reporters would rush over, asking, “President (Yagi), aren’t you going to sing karaoke today?” He provided the kind of footage the media craved, in just the right measure.