A 28-year-old woman has been found not guilty of murdering her wealthy 77-year-old husband who styled himself as a Japanese Don Juan.
Saki Sudo was charged after Kosuke Nozaki was found dead at his home in Tanabe City from a drug overdose in May 2018.
The pair had wed just three months earlier, and she received a monthly allowance of one million yen (£5,170) from him, the Kyodo news agency reported.
Prosecutors accused her of marrying Mr Nozaki and then drugging him to inherit his fortune.
The young widow denied murder.
Mr Nozaki’s home in Tanabe City where he was found dead. Pic: The Yomiuri Shimbun /AP
Sudo was the only person with Mr Nozaki at the time he took the drugs, prosecutors said, arguing that it was unlikely he killed himself given that he had planned a memorial service for his beloved pet dog and scheduled a doctor’s appointment in the days after his death.
Prosecutors also alleged Sudo had searched online for “perfect crime” and “stimulant drugs, lethal amount”.
Judge Keiko Fukushima, of the Wakayama District Court, said it was the first time Mr Nozaki had used the stimulant and “it cannot be stated that there is no possibility he ingested a lethal amount by mistake”.
The ruling said that neither the possibility she would inherit Mr Nozaki’s fortune nor the web searches were sufficient to presume intention to kill or that she was planning a murder.
Mr Nozaki was president of a liquor sales company and property business. He had a personal worth of around 1.3 billion yen (£6.7m).
He gained notoriety for publishing an autobiography titled Don Juan of Kishu: The Man Who Gave 3 Billion Yen to 4,000 Beautiful Women in 2016, likening himself to the mythical Spanish playboy. Kishu is a historical name for the area he lived in.
Sudo is reportedly already serving a jail sentence of three years and six months for defrauding a man of 29.8 million yen (£153,800).