Yuki Watanabe, 42, accused of ordering wide-area robberies from the Philippines under the name "Luffy," denied parts of the indictment at the first hearing of his lay-judge trial at the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday, Kyodo News reported.
Watanabe is charged with robbery resulting in death and other offenses. He is alleged to have been an executive of a special fraud group that directed the robberies from a base in the Philippines.
The trial will test whether Watanabe was the commander of the operation or a cog in a larger machine. He is accused of instructing crimes carried out across Japan while using the name "Luffy" and others.
Lay judges — ordinary citizens who sit alongside professional judges — are hearing the case. Watanabe denied only part of the prosecution's case against him.