Latest File / Season Closer
Case File 020 is not closed history. Roppongi 5-chome, Studio Flower, metal bats, arrested accomplices, and Mitate Shinichi still wanted: an active fugitive file and the season closer.
Case Files 001–020
Each file separates confirmed facts, reported accounts, disputed claims, and unknowns. Season One spans cold cases, wrongful convictions, disaster, pollution, corporate scandal, terrorism, organized crime, and an active fugitive file.
Part I: Foundation files of systems and memory
300 Million Yen Incident
1968 / Unsolved / The perfect-crime myth
A fake motorcycle officer, a cash car, smoke, and roughly 300 million yen disappearing into postwar legend.
Glico-Morinaga Case
1984–85 / Unsolved / Corporate extortion and theater crime
The Monster with 21 Faces, candy aisles, corporate brands, and media fear in late-Showa Japan.
Setagaya Family Murder
2000 / Unsolved / A modern forensic cold case
Many traces were left behind, yet no arrest followed. A defining modern cold case in Japan.
Teigin Incident
1948 / Justice history / Poison and wrongful-conviction questions
A postwar bank poisoning, a death sentence, retrial efforts, and a justice question that never fully closed.
Lockheed Scandal
1976 / Political corruption / Aircraft and power
Aircraft, bribes, U.S. Senate disclosures, Tokyo prosecutors, and Kakuei Tanaka’s political machine.
Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack
1995 / Terrorism and public safety / Urban chemical attack
Chemical terror entered the morning commute, changing public safety, emergency response, and national memory.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
2011 / Disaster accountability / Collapse of the safety myth
Tsunami, meltdown, evacuation, and institutional response: a failure of assumptions as much as a natural disaster.
The Yama-Ichi War
1980s / Organized crime / Public order
A Yamaguchi-gumi split, the Ichiwa-kai, and the organized-crime conflict that shook Kobe and Kansai.
Olympus Accounting Scandal
2011 / Governance / Accounting scandal
Hidden losses, a fired CEO, acquisition fees, auditors, and the quiet collapse of boardroom oversight.
Minamata Disease Case
1956– / Pollution justice / Environmental accountability
The poisoned sea, the silent state, and victims who refused to disappear. A defining environmental-justice case.
Part II: Cold cases, public appeals, and active files
Hachioji Super Nanpei Triple Murder
1995 / Unsolved / A supermarket, a firearm, and 30 years
A closing-time supermarket office, three women, a firearm, and a public appeal that has lasted for decades.
NPA Commissioner Shooting
1995 / Unsolved / Institutional shock after Sarin
Days after the subway sarin attack, Japan’s top police official was shot outside his residence — a case of institutional shock.
Yuri Yoshikawa Disappearance
2003 / Unsolved / Kumatori school-route disappearance
A 9-year-old vanished on her way home from school in Kumatori, Osaka. The public appeal continues.
Yukari Yokoyama Disappearance
1996 / Unsolved / Ota pachinko-parlor disappearance
A 4-year-old disappeared from a pachinko parlor in Ota, Gunma; police continue to seek information.
North Kanto Serial Girls Case
1979–1996 / Unsolved frame and wrongful conviction
A careful look at the North Kanto child-case cluster, the Ashikaga wrongful conviction, DNA limits, and false confession risk.
Shibamata Sophia Student Murder-Arson
1996 / Unsolved / Victim-centered, evidence-centered
The murder and arson that killed Sophia University student Junko Kobayashi, told through memory, evidence, and public appeal.
Paraquat Vending Machine Poisonings
1985 / Unsolved / Public trust and consumer-space fear
Beverages left near vending machines, herbicide poisoning, public warnings, and a collapse of everyday consumer trust.
Saga Women Murders / Wednesday Strangler Reporting Frame
1975–1989 / Reported serial frame and acquittal
A source-careful reading of the Saga women murders, the Wednesday pattern, and the Kitagata acquittal.
Kabukicho Club Venus Robbery-Murder
2001 / Wanted suspect / Nightlife workplace and cross-border search
A Kabukicho club employee was killed, customers and hostesses confined, cash and jewelry stolen, and a suspect remains wanted.
Roppongi 5-chome Murder — Mitate Shinichi and the Active Fugitive File
2012 / Active fugitive / Season closer
A 31-year-old man was killed in a Roppongi 5-chome club. Accomplices were arrested; alleged ringleader Mitate Shinichi remains wanted.
How to Read
Categories before certainty. Sources before story. SHIMBUN reads cases as records.