Court orders retrial of Iwao Hakamada, convicted in 1966 for multiple murders, after DNA analysis of evidence.
A slightly unsteady-looking Iwao Hakamada, 78, emerged from the Tokyo prison with his campaigning sister after Shizuoka District Court in central Japan ordered a fresh trial over the 1966 murder of his boss and the man's family.
Delivering his ruling, presiding judge Hiroaki Murayama cited possible planting of evidence by investigators to win a conviction as they sought to bring closure to a crime that shocked the country.
"There is possibility that [key pieces of] evidence have been fabricated by investigative bodies," Murayama said in his decision, according to Jiji Press.
The judge also ordered Hakamada's release, saying continued confinement "goes against justice".
The decision to retry Hakamada came as Amnesty International issued its annual review of reported executions worldwide, which showed Japan killed eight inmates in 2013, the ninth-largest national tally in the world. Nearly 130 others are also believed to be on death row.
Amnesty, which has championed Hakamada's cause and says he is the world's longest-serving death row detainee, called on prosecutors to respect the court's decision.
After being sentenced to death in Japan the prisoner is held in solitary confinement with no interactions allowed with other prisoners. There is no set date for the prisoners execution they are notified just hours before its to take place. Families of those executed are notified only after the execution has taken place.
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