Shiga Govt Ordered to Compensate Ex-Assistant Nurse Acquitted of Murder

From Jiji

July 17 2025

Otsu, Shiga Pref – A district court in western Japan on Thursday ordered the Shiga prefectural government to pay about 31 million yen in damages to a former assistant nurse acquitted of murdering a patient. 
   Sosuke Ikeda, presiding judge at Otsu District Court, said in the ruling that the investigation of Mika Nishiyama, 45, by officers of the Shiga prefectural police department went beyond socially acceptable levels.
   Meanwhile, the court rejected Nishiyama’s claim for damages from the Japanese government, saying that her indictment by public prosecutors was reasonable to a certain degree. The plaintiff side plans to appeal against the ruling.
   Nishiyama was arrested by the police in 2004 on suspicion of murdering a male patient at Koto Memorial Hospital in the city of Higashiomi, formerly the town of Koto, in the western Japan prefecture based on her confession during police investigations.
   She retracted her confession and pleaded not guilty during her trial, but the Supreme Court finalized a 12-year prison sentence in 2007.