77-Year-Old Billionaire’s Sudden Death Sparks Scandal: Young Lover Pleads Not Guilty in Shocking Trial
Japanese ‘Don Juan’ Kosuke Nozaki’s Wife Pleads Not Guilty to Murder
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Kosuke Nozaki (right) and Saki Sudo. [아사히신문]
The trial of Saki Sudo, the 20-year-old wife of Japanese businessman Kosuke Nozaki, began on September 12. Nozaki, known as the ‘Don Juan’ of Japan, died suddenly in 2018 at the age of 77.
Sudo, who is accused of murdering her husband, pleaded not guilty in the first trial. According to Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, Sudo’s lawyer argued that the prosecution must prove how Sudo managed to give her husband a lethal dose of stimulants.
Nozaki died of acute stimulant poisoning at his home in Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture on May 24, 2018. Japanese prosecutors believe Sudo killed her husband using stimulants, which she had ordered online about a month before his death.
A housekeeper who worked at Nozaki’s house testified that the couple was always bickering and that Nozaki had threatened to divorce Sudo because she only prepared her own dinner and did not listen to him well.
Before his death, Nozaki had left a will to give his entire inheritance, which was over 1.5 billion yen (about 14.1 billion won), to Tanabe City, where he lived, rather than to his wife.
![On June 6, 2018, after Nozaki's death, Sudo visits Nozaki's home in Wakayama Prefecture. [연합뉴스]](https://pimg.mk.co.kr/news/cms/202409/18/news-p.v1.20240917.661d234e596e4318a0c589d454da6737_P1.jpg "77-Year-Old Billionaire's Sudden Death Sparks Scandal: Young Lover Pleads Not Guilty in Shocking Trial")
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On June 6, 2018, after Nozaki’s death, Sudo visits Nozaki’s home in Wakayama Prefecture. [연합뉴스]
Nozaki was a wealthy businessman who had made his fortune through various investments, including finance, liquor sales, and real estate. He was known for his lavish spending and his love of beautiful women.
In his book, Nozaki wrote that his only desire was sexual desire and that he made money because he wanted to have sex with beautiful women. He proposed to Sudo, who was 55 years his junior, if she would be the last woman, and they married in February 2018, but her troubled life ended three months later.