By Barrier Free Japan
June 21 2024
JAPAN – Two recent court proceedings in Japan have involved claims about the accused’s mental health: an appeal of nurse with autism whom was found guilty of murdering three patients and the man charged with killing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling on Wednesday that sentenced a 37-year-old former nurse to an indefinite prison term for murdering three patients at a hospital in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 2016. Presiding Judge Toru Miura, noting that the defendant, Ayumi Kuboki, had autistic spectrum disorder at the time, said, “The anxiety and fear she felt during nursing work were so great that she felt physically unwell.”
A psychiatric evaluation of the man accused of fatally shooting former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has determined him mentally fit to be held criminally responsible for his actions, sources close to the matter said Wednesday. The defense for Tetsuya Yamagami did not contest the results of the evaluation, which had been conducted at the request of prosecutors, and effectively deferred a request for another evaluation, the sources said.
Episode notes:
‘Former Japanese Nurse with Autism Gets Indefinite Term in Appeal Trial’:
‘Psychiatric exam finds ex-Japan PM Abe shooter mentally fit’:
https://barrierfreejapan.com/2024/06/20/psychiatric-exam-finds-ex-japan-pm-abe-shooter-mentally-fit/
‘Linking mental illness to violence tarnishes an entire community’, By Michael Gillan Peckitt & Mark Bookman, The Japan Times, August 2nd 2019, (Behind Paywall):
Barrier Free Japan 
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