TOKYO - A JAPANESE court on Tuesday sentenced to death a man who killed his girlfriend and another woman with a hammer and dismembered their bodies, a court official said.

Kazuya Takayanagi, 43, killed girlfriend Mika Hatafuji and her friend Yoshimi Tanigawa, both 23, at his home in western Hyogo prefecture in January 2005 after they argued over money problems, the court heard.

He then dismembered their bodies and dumped the remains in nearby mountains and at a port, according to the ruling by the Kobe District Court.

'He deserves the death penalty,' Hatafuji's mother Akiyo told reporters after sentencing. 'I appreciate the ruling.' Defence lawyers said they planned to appeal.

Japan is the only major industrial nation other than the United States to apply the death penalty.

Last year Japan executed 15 people by hanging, and four more were put to death in January, leaving 96 people on death row at the end of February. -- AFP