Japanese man held in wife’s 1981 slaying

? A Japanese businessman accused of conspiring to have his wife killed 27 years ago was returned to Southern California on Friday to face trial.

Kazuyoshi Miura, 61, arrived at Los Angeles International Airport shortly before 5 a.m. on a flight from Saipan that stopped in Guam and Honolulu.

Miura was arrested in February while visiting Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific, after cold case detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department worked with authorities there. He was arrested on a 1988 Los Angeles County warrant alleging murder and conspiracy, but the murder charge has been dropped.

It was the first time Miura had set foot in the continental United States since the warrant was issued, police Detective Rick Jackson said.