A Japanese man who spent more than four decades on death row for a crime he didn’t commit has been granted ¥217 million (around ₱83 million or $1.4 million) in compensation, according to a court ruling released on March 25.
Iwao Hakamada, now 89, was convicted in 1966 of killing a family of four. He was exonerated last year after a retrial revealed police had tampered with evidence and extracted a confession through inhumane interrogations. He is considered the world’s longest-serving death row inmate.
The compensation covers about ¥12,500 (roughly ₱4,700) for each day Hakamada spent behind bars—many of those days under the threat of execution.
The decision by the Shizuoka District Court marks the highest compensation amount ever awarded in a wrongful conviction case in Japan, local media reported. Still, Hakamada’s legal team insists no amount can truly account for the psychological trauma he endured over the decades, describing his mental state as deeply affected by prolonged isolation and fear.
Hakamada is the fifth death row inmate in post-war Japan to be acquitted in a retrial. All previous cases also ended in exoneration.
