LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A Japanese businessman hanged himself in a Los Angeles jailcell where he was awaiting trial for plotting his wife's murder here in 1981, prosecutors said Saturday.Kazuyoshi Miura, 61, killed himself Friday night just hours after arriving in Los Angeles in the custody of authorities that had him extradited to face criminal charges here.Chief of Los Angeles police detectives Charles Beck said Miura used a piece of shirt to hang himself after a jailer checked on him at 9:45 pm Friday (0445 GMT Saturday). Miura was alone in his cell.An officer noticed Miura unconscious, hanging by the strip of cloth, about ten minutes later."The detention officers assigned to the portion of the jail housing Miura had conducted a required cell check, with nothing unusual to report, approximately 10 minutes prior," Beck said.Efforts to revive Miura failed and he was pronounced dead at a local medical center, according to Beck.Miura had been in police custody since his arrest February 21 in the US commonwealth of Saipan.He arrived in Los Angeles early Friday under escort by police detectives and was to remain in jail until being arraigned in court next week on a charge of conspiracy to murder his wife.Miura had been dubbed the "Japanese O.J. Simpson" because of the intense interest in his case at home. "He was not on suicide watch, and we had no obvious evidence that he was suicidal," Beck said."He was extremely cooperative on the trip over. He had visitors from the (Japanese) Consulate and discussions with his attorney."No note was found and, as is routine, the "in-custody death" is being investigated.Miura was shot in the leg and his 28-year-old wife, Kazumi, received a bullet wound to the head in what appeared at the time to be a robbery in a Los Angeles car park on November 18, 1981.The wife was returned to Japan by the US Air Force and died in hospital after a year in a coma. The case became notorious and reinforced Japanese perceptions of the US as a violent country.But a series of Japanese news articles in 1984 started to change perceptions when a former mistress of Miura said he had asked her to kill his wife three months before the shooting.In a statement released in May 1988 after murder and conspiracy charges were filed inLos Angeles, prosecutors alleged Miura collected about 750,000 dollars from life insurance policies on his wife.Prosecutors also allege Miura "solicited five different people to murder his wife," including the person who actually shot her.Miura was convicted of murder and assault charges by a Japanese court and served more than a decade in prison before winning his release with a successful appeal.US judge Steven Van Sicklen ruled last month that Miura could only face conspiracy to commit murder charges in California -- rather than a count of murder -- because ofdouble jeopardy rules.Thursday, prosecutors in Los Angeles filed a 25-page motion asking the court to reinstate a murder charge against Miura.Miura was scheduled to be arraigned on the conspiracy charge on Tuesday. He faced a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison if convicted as charged.