Prosecutors asked for life imprisonment for two men in their 20s on Oct 29, accusing them of carrying out a robbery at a Yokohama home in which a 75-year-old man died, part of a series of robberies across the Tokyo metropolitan area staffed through yami baito — illegal short-term work recruited online, often for crime.
The two faced charges of robbery resulting in death and other offenses at a trial in Yokohama. Prosecutors described the crimes as brutal, NHK reported. The defense's position and the date of the ruling were not immediately clear.
A wave of robberies run through job-recruiting sites
The Yokohama case was one of several robberies that spread across the Tokyo area in 2024, in which recruits answered online ads and were sent to break into homes. The 75-year-old man died in the Yokohama attack.
Prosecutors have argued that the men on the ground were the executing hands of operations organized by others. Japanese courts have in recent years weighed how much responsibility to assign to low-level recruits in such cases, and how much to the people who recruited and directed them.
The trial continues, with a ruling expected later.