Overview

• Filed on October 9 in the Shizuoka District Court, the claim seeks roughly ¥600 million in damages for decades of detention and harm linked to a now-overturned death sentence.
• The suit targets the state and Shizuoka Prefecture over alleged police fabrication of the “five items of clothing,” prosecutorial misconduct, and what the filing calls the courts’ grave negligence in allowing a death verdict to stand.
• In September 2024, the same court acquitted Hakamada in a retrial and explicitly concluded that the clothing evidence had been manufactured by investigators; prosecutors then declined to appeal, making the acquittal final.
• Prosecutor-General Naomi Unemoto previously rejected the fabrication finding in a public statement, and the government is expected to challenge both the allegation and the scope of liability in court.
• The damages calculation cites lost earnings over roughly 47 years and 7 months of confinement and the psychological toll of awaiting execution, with a separate suit seeking ¥5.5 million over the prosecutor-general’s remarks.