So far, we’ve explored many mysteries in North America, Europe, and even Australia, but today, we are traveling to Asia as we examine some of the most intriguing, bizarre, and creepy conundrums from Japan.
10. Who Made the SOS Sign?
In 1989, a strange event occurred in Daisetsuzan National Park, known as the SOS Incident. On July 24, two hikers from Tokyo were reported lost while exploring Mount Asahi. A rescue helicopter was sent out to look for them and managed to locate them safe and sound after spotting a large SOS sign on the ground. All’s well that ends well, right?
Well, this is where the weird part comes in – they did not make that sign. It had been there for years, presumably from another mountaineer who was not as fortunate as them. A closer examination of the area revealed a large hole dug close to the sign, which stored a notebook, some cassette tapes, two cameras, and a few other items including a driver’s license belonging to a man named Kenji Iwamura. He had disappeared back in 1984 while hiking in the area.
Closer to the SOS sign, investigators found human remains. The initial analysis said they belonged to a woman, although this may have been revised in the years that followed. Even if the remains and the items all belonged to Iwamura, authorities still are not certain how he built the giant SOS sign without any tools and, likely, while injured. It is possible there are more things yet to uncover in those forests.
9. Who Killed Sakamoto Ryoma?
For many people in Japan, Sakamoto Ryoma is a national hero. Born in 1836, Sakamoto was a low-level samurai who opposed the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate but ended up becoming a revolutionary who was instrumental in the collapse of the shogunate and the establishment of the Empire of Japan during the political event known as the Meiji Restoration.
Sakamoto’s place in Japanese history is deeply-rooted, but you can’t have that kind of impact without making a few enemies and he paid the price with his life. On December 10, 1867, he and a close associate named Nakaoka Shintar? were attacked by assassins while staying at an inn in Kyoto. Sakamoto was killed instantly, while his friend lingered on for two more days.
A month later, a civil war known as the Boshin War erupted, which culminated with a victory for the Imperial Court and the rise of the Empire of Japan. However, Sakamoto never got to see his dream fulfilled. Although his killers were, undoubtedly, pro-shogun assassins, their identities and the identities of the men who put them up to it remain enduring mysteries.
8. Who Made the Yonaguni Monument?
During the mid-1980s, divers exploring the waters off the coast of Yonaguni Island made an incredible discovery – an underwater rock formation, over 100 meters long and 60 meters wide, that strongly resembled a ziggurat or step-pyramid. Smaller, nearby formations suggested that the divers had just stumbled upon a submerged ancient city like the Atlantis of legend. After further inspection, scholars came to believe that the Yonaguni Monument, as it became known, was around 5,000 years old, and was all that remained of a mysterious lost civilization after a massive earthquake doomed their society. Some even speculated that the monument could have been a remnant of the mythical lost continent of Mu.
While this is certainly a tantalizing idea, not everyone is buying it. A lot of scientists believe that the Yonaguni Monument was made by nature, not man. Earthquakes, underwater eddies, and marine life, they all worked together to create this puzzling underwater edifice.
Both sides stand firm in their positions and this matter is far from settled so, until then, the Yonaguni Monument remains one of the most mysterious structures in Japan.
7. Who Committed the 300 Million Yen Affair?
On December 10, 1968, four employees of the Nihon Shintaku Bank loaded up almost 300 million yen in a company car and drove to a Toshiba factory where the money was supposed to be bonuses for the workers. Shortly before arriving at their destination, they were pulled over by a young police officer on a motorcycle. He told them that there had been an explosion at their branch manager’s home and that there might be another bomb under their vehicle. All four men got out of the car and the policeman crawled underneath it to check.
Soon enough, smoke and flames started spewing from the undercarriage of the vehicle. The panicked policeman screamed that the bomb was going to blow, prompting the four bank employees to run for their lives. At that point, the officer simply got in the car and drove away with 300 million yen. He was not, in fact, a real policeman, but a rather audacious criminal, and using a fake uniform, a road flare, and a lot of imagination, he just pulled off the greatest heist in the country’s history.
The robber was never identified, nor was the money ever recovered despite numerous pieces of evidence, four witnesses, and even a composite sketch of the criminal. It simply remains a fascinating and mysterious chapter of Japan’s criminal lore.
6. Who (or What) Was Utsuro-bune?
Every country has, at least, one good UFO story and Japan is no exception. The key difference is that Japan’s most famous close encounter is centuries old, dating back to the early 1800s during the Edo Period.
It is the tale of utsuro-bune, roughly translated to “hollow ship.” One day, this strange vessel washed up on the shores of Hitachi. A few fishermen approached the ship, and out of it came a beautiful woman who spoke a language that nobody understood and clutched a box close to her chest. The captain of the fishing vessel was the only one who dared to get close to her, and he took a peek inside her ship and saw that it had strange inscriptions on the interior walls. A few minutes later, the woman got back inside her craft, drifted out to sea, and was never seen again, while the fishermen spread the word of their eerie encounter far and wide.
So who was Utsuro-bune? Was she simply a visitor from another land, or someone who got cast out at sea in exile? Was she an alien visitor or some kind of sea creature, or was she simply the product of the fishermen’s overactive imaginations?
5. What Happens in the Dragon’s Triangle?
You’ve all probably heard of the Bermuda Triangle, a section of the North Atlantic Ocean with a lot of supposedly unexplained phenomena that have caused multiple ships and aircraft to disappear over the years. It has been one of the favorite talking points of paranormal enthusiasts for decades, but Japan has its own little supernatural corner in the Pacific, just south of Tokyo.
It is known as the Dragon’s Triangle or the Devil’s Sea. For centuries, it has been where many Japanese fishermen sunk to their watery graves, but even in modern times, it seems that the triangle is still claiming victims. Back in 1955, when the New York Times reported on a ship that went missing, they said that the “devil’s sea” was a “mystery graveyard” responsible for the disappearance of nine ships just in the previous five years.
Are all of these disappearances legit and, if so, what caused them? We know for sure of one ship that vanished in the Dragon’s Triangle – the research vessel Kaiyo-Maru No. 5. It disappeared in September 1952, while investigating new islands being formed by underwater volcanic eruptions. Maybe one such eruption was responsible for its demise. Or, who knows? Maybe it was aliens…
4. Who Committed the Satanic Verses Killing?
When Salmon Rushdie published The Satanic Verses back in 1988, he was met with a lot of vitriol and controversy, with Ayatollah Khomeini even calling for his death. Rushdie was placed under police protection and survived several attempts on his life, but not everyone was so lucky.
Hitoshi Igarashi was a Japanese scholar who studied Persian and Arabic literature. In 1990, he translated The Satanic Verses into Japanese and, thus, he became a target. Igarashi was assassinated on July 12, 1991. He was found by a janitor inside his office at Tsukuba University, having been stabbed six times in the face, neck, and hands.
Nobody ever claimed responsibility for the attack, but it is highly unlikely that his murder would be unrelated to his work. Back then, Japan had a 15-year statute of limitations on murder, so even if the killer is ever identified, he would get away with it scot-free but, for now, he remains a mystery.
3. Who Killed the Miyazawa Family?
Another one of Japan’s most notorious unsolved crimes occurred on the night of December 30, 2000, when the entire Miyazawa family – father, mother, and two young children – was murdered during a home invasion in their house in the Setagaya neighborhood of Tokyo.
Their bodies were found the following morning by a family member. One of the children had been strangled to death, while the other three victims were all stabbed. Afterward, it appears that the killer stayed in the house for hours, maybe even overnight. He left behind a mountain of evidence, including blood, fingerprints, and personal possessions. And yet, despite one of the largest investigations in Japanese history, the killer is still at large.
2. Who Was the Monster with 21 Faces?
In March 1984, Katsuhisa Ezaki, the president of the Ezaki Glico food company was kidnapped at gunpoint from his home in Osaka. Less than three days later, however, Ezaki managed to escape his captors and get to safety. Already, the kidnapping of such a high-profile figure shocked the nation, but it was about to get a lot more sinister.
The group responsible dubbed themselves the “Monster with 21 Faces,” inspired by a fictional villain. Their original plot failed, so they changed course to extortion – pay them the money or they will begin lacing Glico candy with cyanide and leave them in supermarkets around the country. Nobody would know if they were about to enjoy a sweet treat or poison. The company didn’t pay up, and the criminals didn’t follow up on their threat. Even so, recalls and fearful buyers resulted in massive losses for the company and 450 layoffs.
But still, this was not the end, as the “monster” moved on to another confectionery company named Morinaga. This time, they actually did leave tainted candy in stores from Tokyo to Hakata. They also included a sticker that mentioned that the candy contained poison, but warned that, next time, no such sticker would be used.
Such a bizarre case deserved a shocking conclusion and it got it in August 1985. The man in charge of the investigation, Superintendent Shoji Yamamoto, made a public apology for his team’s failure to apprehend the criminals. He then went home, doused himself in kerosene, and set himself on fire. After his death, the extortionists sent another letter, offering condolences and saying they will stop their reign of terror. And just like that… the Monster with 21 Faces was never heard from again.
1. Who Poisoned Japan’s Vending Machines?
We end with another case of random poisonings, one that also happened in 1985, like the Monster with 21 Faces. While this one might not have had the same creepiness factor, it proved to be far deadlier.
This time, the criminal targeted vending machines by leaving small bottles inside the dispensers. People who used the vending machine got two drinks instead of one. They probably thought it was their lucky day when, in fact, for many of them, it proved to be their last.
The bottles were usually laced with a herbicide named paraquat, hence why the spree was also known as the Paraquat murders. At least ten people were killed and dozens of others fell ill until the poisonings stopped, as suddenly as they began. Nobody was ever arrested.