The trial of a man accused of murdering an Irish exchange student in Japan is to open tomorrow.

Nicola Furlong, from Curracloe, Co Wexford, was found unconscious in a hotel in central Tokyo last May. She had been on night out with a friend at a concert.

19-year-old musician Richard Hinds, from Memphis, Tennessee in the US, has admitted strangling the 21-year-old but denies killing her intentionally.

Nicola's parents Andrew and Angie and her sister Andrea have flown to Japan for the trial which is expected to last more than a week.