In the past few days, a case that once shocked Japan has reached its conclusion:
The Wakayama District Court has ruled that 28-year-old defendant Hayami Sudo, accused by the prosecution of murdering her 77-year-old husband, Kousuke Nozaki, in May 2018, has been acquitted due to insufficient evidence. The charge of murder is not upheld, and she is released without conviction!
(Photo of Kousuke Nozaki and Hayami Sudo) 
Upon the news breaking, Japanese netizens and media were in an uproar.
Hayami Sudo, as the prime suspect, exposed numerous suspicious points but escaped conviction due to a lack of direct evidence, earning her the nickname “Perfect Crime” by netizens…
(Hayami Sudo released without conviction)
All of this began with Kousuke Nozaki, a man known for his playboy lifestyle and who styled himself as the “Don Juan of Kii.”
Kii is the old name for Wakayama Prefecture, and Don Juan is a legendary Spanish nobleman known for his amorous exploits and seductions.
Born in 1941, Kousuke Nozaki came from a poor family. With many siblings, he dropped out of middle school to help his parents with work.
Initially, Kousuke Nozaki was just an honest kid trying to earn money to improve his family’s life, working as a salesman for a sake brewery, but he never managed to achieve significant results.
(Young Kousuke Nozaki)
Later, by chance, he started selling then-rare condoms and unexpectedly struck it rich.
During his condom sales, Kousuke Nozaki not only made money but also, by often giving “product demonstrations” to housewives whose husbands were away, disrupted many marriages.
From then on, Kousuke Nozaki seemed to open a new world, setting his life goal:
To make a lot of money and have relationships with many women.
(Adult Kousuke Nozaki)
Later, Kousuke Nozaki used the capital he accumulated from selling condoms to start a business. He seized the opportunity to enter the loan shark industry, and within a few years, his assets doubled.
With plenty of money, Kousuke Nozaki naturally did not forget his initial ambition, spending lavishly on women.
He frequented various women, from hostesses to waitresses to college students, trying to conquer them with his wealth.
He often promised young, naive girls marriage, showering them with money before abandoning them after a while, deceiving the emotions of countless girls.
(Kousuke Nozaki’s autobiography)
In 2016, at the age of over seventy, Kousuke Nozaki unabashedly published an autobiography detailing his romantic history with 4,000 women.
In the book, he dubbed himself the “Don Juan of Kii,” vowing to continue his quest to conquer beautiful women.
However, what Kousuke Nozaki did not know was that he was about to meet his greatest adversary in his romantic life, a young girl named Hayami Sudo.
(High school photo of Hayami Sudo)
Little is known about Hayami Sudo’s early life, only that she was unremarkable in high school and had no romantic history.
After enrolling in a beauty school, Hayami Sudo underwent a dramatic transformation, attracting many suitors, began wearing luxury brands, and frequenting nightclubs.
(Hayami Sudo)
Before meeting Kousuke Nozaki, she had a history of defrauding men of money and was rumored to have been kept by someone.
But for Kousuke Nozaki, who used money to seduce women, a gold-digger was just his type.
In 2017 at Haneda International Airport, 76-year-old Kousuke Nozaki nearly fell, but a young beauty, Hayami Sudo, reached out to help him.
(Hayami Sudo and Kousuke Nozaki got married)
After this encounter, the two quickly hit it off and became a couple.
Hayami Sudo claimed to be a model, loving luxury goods and desiring someone to fulfill her shopping desires.
Kousuke Nozaki was not to be outdone, directly offering that if Hayami agreed to marry him, she would receive a monthly allowance of 1 million yen . He also promised not to restrict her freedom, as long as she spent time with him, she could do as she pleased with the rest of her time.
In February 2018, Kousuke Nozaki married Hayami Sudo, who was 55 years his junior.
However, the “Don Juan of Kii” did not expect to fall into a trap. After marriage, Hayami Sudo began employing cold violence.
She rarely shared a bed with Kousuke Nozaki, and when they did, she strictly forbade him from touching her, even making him wear rubber gloves before allowing him to be near her.
This was a significant blow to “Don Juan,” and to make matters worse, post-marriage Hayami Sudo continued to act independently, spending lavishly and occasionally visiting host clubs, showing no regard for her husband.
(Kousuke Nozaki felt the pain of marriage)
Moreover, Kousuke Nozaki began to experience strange occurrences. Two months after their marriage, he suffered two strokes.
In May 2018, his long-time pet dog also died suddenly, causing Kousuke Nozaki some unease.
(Kousuke Nozaki’s mistress holds a ceremony for the dog)
However, just two weeks later, Kousuke Nozaki’s unease was completely dispelled:
He died at home…
On the evening of May 24, Kousuke Nozaki was found dead in his second-floor bedroom. Hayami Sudo was the first to discover the body, and after her loud exclamation, the nanny was called, and they decided to call the police.
Upon arriving at the scene, the police began their investigation, initially determining that Kousuke Nozaki died of “acute stimulant poisoning.”
His body contained stimulant levels far exceeding the normal human tolerance of 0.5 grams. Since there were no injection marks on his arms or other parts of his body, and no stimulants were detected in his hair, the police speculated that he had ingested the stimulants orally.
(Hayami Sudo smiling at Kousuke Nozaki’s funeral)
Was Kousuke Nozaki’s death an “accident,” or was he poisoned, causing him to consume food containing a large amount of stimulants?
This… required a thorough investigation.
The police investigated a liquor company under Nozaki’s name, testing over 2,000 empty beer bottles and the body of the deceased pet dog, but found no trace of stimulants. Additionally, the police determined that Kousuke Nozaki had no motive for suicide.
Thus, the police concluded:
Someone had forced or induced Kousuke Nozaki to take stimulants. The prime suspect in this case was very likely Hayami Sudo…
(Hayami Sudo considered highly suspicious)
Over the following years, the police conducted an in-depth investigation into Hayami Sudo’s connection with stimulants. The results were astonishing:
They discovered that Hayami Sudo had searched online for terms like “stimulants, death, elderly, perfect crime, inheritance of property,” and researched numerous stimulant studies, even making contact with stimulant dealers through the internet.
On April 28, 2021, the Wakayama police arrested Hayami Sudo, and the prosecution subsequently charged her with murder and violating the Stimulant Control Act.
(Hayami Sudo arrested)
However, unexpectedly, during the lengthy trial that followed, the prosecution did not gain any advantage.
Despite the prosecution presenting extensive evidence of Hayami Sudo’s contact and purchase of stimulants, her defense lawyer countered that these were baseless and insufficient to prove she committed murder.
Hayami Sudo’s own account was:
Kousuke Nozaki had given her 200,000 yen to buy stimulants for him. She purchased them online and handed them over to Kousuke Nozaki the next day, all against her will.
(Media surrounding Hayami Sudo)
Hayami Sudo also stated that she had no motive to kill:
“Why would I kill him when I receive 1 million yen every month?”
Despite these claims, Hayami Sudo still stood to gain significantly. Kousuke Nozaki had made a will to donate his entire 1.32 billion yen estate to the city of Tanabe where he lived.
But according to Japanese law, even with a will, the wife still has the right to claim half of the inheritance, which would be 660 million yen .
In terms of inheritance, Hayami Sudo had a reasonable motive for murder.
However, the judge presiding over the case concluded:
Even if Hayami Sudo had the intent and opportunity to kill Kousuke Nozaki, there was no direct evidence to prove that she forced her husband to ingest the stimulants.
The direct evidence for murder was insufficient.
Thus, on December 12, Hayami Sudo was acquitted by the Wakayama District Court due to insufficient evidence and released in court.
(Hayami Sudo gains freedom)
Hayami Sudo thus gained her freedom, and the “Don Juan of Kii Death Case,” which had lasted six years, came to an end.
Whether this was a “perfect murder” or an accident will likely remain an unsolved mystery for a long time to come…
