Young widow accused of poisoning ‘Don Juan’
He described himself as a Japanese Don Juan, boasting in books and on TV about his many lovers, and insisting that his sexual escapades kept him alive.
Kosuke Nozaki, 77, the millionaire author of a bestselling memoir about his life of womanising, was found dead three years ago. Now his young widow has been arrested at her home in Tokyo on suspicion of killing him.
Saki Sudo, now 25, had been married to the flamboyant entrepreneur for only three months when he died of an overdose of methamphetamines in May 2018. According to reports in Japanese media, she has denied having anything to do with his death.
Nozaki started out as a condom salesman and went on to make a 1.3 billion yen fortune (NZ$17m) in property, alcohol and money lending.
Sudo, a model, was the only other person present at his home in the city of Tanabe in Wakayama prefecture when he died. She called emergency services an hour and a half later, it is estimated.
There were no syringe marks on Nozaki’s body, and he had written about his dislike of drugs, adding to suspicions that he had been poisoned. Eighteen days earlier, his dog, a miniature dachshund, had also died unexpectedly.
In 2016, Nozaki published an autobiography called The Don Juan of Kishu, a reference to the old name for Wakayama, a rural area in central Japan. The book, subtitled The Man Who Gave Three Billion Yen to 4000 Beautiful Women, describes in detail his erotic adventures, and was followed by numerous TV appearances in which he talked unabashedly about his conquests.
‘‘Men easily age when they don’t have something to live for,’’ he wrote. ‘‘My goal in life is to have sex with beautiful women. It will never change, and there is no retirement age.’’
In 2016, a 27-year-old woman Nozaki met at a ‘‘dating club’’ stole 60 million yen in cash and jewellery from him. He told journalists the theft was ‘‘a useful life experience’’.
Nozaki published a follow-up volume about his marriage to Sudo. ‘‘People ask me, ‘Can you really do it?’, and I reply, ‘Oh yes, three times a day on average’,’’ he said. ‘‘I have never used Viagra, but am always vigorous.’’