the MONSTER with 21 faces | Japan's greatest unsolved mystery

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: New York Times, Monster with 21 Faces, Katsuhisa Zaki, sodium cyanide
2. 5:00 – 10:00: hydrochloric acid
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Gleco, Glico, Monster with 21 Faces, Glico products
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Monster with 21 Faces, Moronaga, Aaka, Kyoto
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Moronaga, Monster with 21 Faces, sodium cyanide
6. 25:00 – 30:00: House Foods, Sho Yamamoto, Moronaga, Kyoto
7. 30:00 – 35:00: Monster with 21 Faces, Hayo Miyazaki
8. 35:00 – 37:09: Monster with 21 Faces

Notable quotes from "the MONSTER with 21 faces | Japan's greatest unsolved mystery"

• Nobody was killed. Not really. If the perpetrators were caught today, literally nothing would happen. But this is one of the greatest mysteries Japan has ever seen. This is the…

  about Japan · at 0:07

• March 18th, 1984 when two masked intruders broke into the home of Katsuhisa Zaki just west of Aaka in Japan. Actually, no, broke into the home is a bit misleading. They used a…

  about Katsuhisa Zaki · at 1:09

• Levels, something that would continue to fall over the coming weeks. And even when eventually the Glico products were returned to the shelves, the public didn't want to buy…

  about Gleco · at 12:55

• What he had placed on the shelf was a can of Moronaga fruit drops found to contain a lethal dose of sodium cyanide.

  about sodium cyanide · at 22:26

• Coming. They said they were going to poison the products again. But this time, if Moronaga products returned to the shelves, there would be no warning.

  about Moronaga · at 25:00

• Radio, that made a bit more sense. This person was so tuned in, literally and figuratively. Throughout the end of 1984, the monster continues to harass House Foods. They…

  about House Foods · at 26:50

• So just one day after being demoted on August 7th, 1985, Shoji Yamamoto walked into his garden. He dowsted himself in kerosene and set himself on fire. He ended his own life by self emulation.

  about Sho Yamamoto · at 29:15

• 28,000 tips and looked at 125,000 people of interest to no avail. Nothing. The monster with 21 faces could literally come forward today and identify themselves. They could…

  about Monster with 21 Faces · at 35:00

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Katsuhisa Zaki — Person · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 1:14
  Katsuhisa Zaki was the president of Glico, a central figure in the kidnapping incident that sparked the Monster with 21 Faces case.
• Sho Yamamoto — Person · Referenced person · 2 mentions · first at 28:47
  Sho Yamamoto was a police superintendent involved in the investigation, who tragically took his own life.
• Hayo Miyazaki — Person · Referenced suspect · 2 mentions · first at 33:39
  Miyazaki was a suspect in the case due to his resemblance to the foxeyed man and past disputes with Glico.
  Evade the police. is how frustrated they could make them. I don't know. The motive still evades everyone. In all the years since this, over 40 years now since the first letter…
• Katie Mo — Person · Referenced person · 1 mention · first at 1:59
  Mo is Katsuhisa Zaki's wife, involved in the initial kidnapping incident.
  Daughter. They quickly subdued them with the guns, which was a pistol and an air rifle, and then tied them up. Mo begged the men not to hurt the children, told them they could…
• Caitlyn Miko — Person · Referenced person · 1 mention
  Miko is Katsuhisa Zaki's wife, involved in the initial kidnapping incident.
  Together, Katahisa and his wife Miko were able to provide police with descriptions of the suspects, all of whom were male. Suspect A was about 5'5 tall and 40 years old. He wore a white.

Companies & orgs

• Gleco — Company · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 13:00
  Glico was the primary target of the Monster with 21 Faces, facing threats, arson, and product tampering.
• Glico — Company · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 13:00
  Glico was the primary target of the Monster with 21 Faces, facing threats, arson, and product tampering.
  Levels, something that would continue to fall over the coming weeks. And even when eventually the Glico products were returned to the shelves, the public didn't want to buy…
• Moronaga — Company · Core topic · 6 mentions · first at 19:38
  Moronaga was another major target of the Monster with 21 Faces, facing threats of product poisoning.
• House Foods — Company · Referenced company · 3 mentions · first at 25:34
  House Foods was another company targeted by the Monster with 21 Faces for ransom.
• Glico Nutrition — Company · Referenced company · 1 mention
  Glico Nutrition was a division of Glico affected by the arson attacks.
  165 m of this building was burned to the ground. This was a pretty big fire. And then 20 minutes after this, a division of Gleco called Gleco Nutrition also had a fire breakout at their headquarters.
• Fia — Company · Referenced company · 1 mention
  Fia was another company targeted by the Monster with 21 Faces.
  1984, the monster continues to harass House Foods. They continued to harass Morinaga and they also eventually moved their attention to Fia, which is a restaurant chain. I don't…

Products & tech

• Glico products — Product · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 13:00
  Glico products were central to the threats and tampering by the Monster with 21 Faces.
  Levels, something that would continue to fall over the coming weeks. And even when eventually the Glico products were returned to the shelves, the public didn't want to buy…
• Pocky — Product · Referenced product · 2 mentions · first at 3:05
  Pocky is a well-known product of Glico, mentioned to highlight the company's global presence.
  In Japan known for manufacturing sweets and snacks. They do other things, too, but you'll probably know Gico for making Pocky, which are the chocolatecovered pretzel sticks…

Concepts & topics

• Monster with 21 Faces — Concept · Core topic · 7 mentions · first at 0:16
  The Monster with 21 Faces was the name used by the group responsible for the threats and crimes against Glico and other companies.
• sodium cyanide — Concept · Referenced concept · 2 mentions · first at 0:35
  Sodium cyanide was used in the threats of poisoning against food products.
• hydrochloric acid — Concept · Referenced concept · 2 mentions · first at 7:26
  Hydrochloric acid was used in threats against Katsuhisa Zaki and Glico.
  Than he was before. But then two weeks later, a letter arrives at his home accompanied by a bottle of eye drops filled with hydrochloric acid. The letter read, Dear Katsahisa…
• Zodiac Killer — Concept · Referenced concept · 1 mention · first at 11:07
  The Monster with 21 Faces was compared to the Zodiac Killer due to the cryptic letters and taunting of authorities.
  Point the letters start being sent to the media as well as to GO directly. And the letters very much give Zodiac Killer vibes. It feels as if the writer is taunting the police.…

Places & events

• Japan — Place · Core topic · 1 mention
  The events took place in Japan, affecting its food industry and public safety.
• Shiga Prefecture — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention
  Shiga Prefecture was involved in the investigation and the tragic death of Sho Yamamoto.
• Aaka — Place · Referenced location · 2 mentions · first at 1:14
  Aaka is the location near where Katsuhisa Zaki was kidnapped.
  And as he was waiting to take the train back to Aaka, he noticed the foxeyed man was also waiting for the same train back. All of the officers were very aware of this man, but they didn't.
• Kyoto — Place · Referenced location · 2 mentions · first at 16:29
  Kyoto was mentioned as a location involved in the ransom delivery instructions.
  Throw out the bag. Once you see the one meter square white flag, throw the bag out the window. Go to Kyoto and if there is no flag, then do it again. It's genuinely like…
• Nagoya — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention · first at 11:41
  Nagoya was mentioned as a location involved in the product tampering threats.
  Poor policeman, glyco is annoying, so I injected two with 0.05 gram of hydrogen cyanide in the stores in the area between Nagoya and Okiyama. It's not enough to kill, but the…
• Okiyama — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention · first at 11:41
  Okiyama was mentioned as a location involved in the product tampering threats.
  Poor policeman, glyco is annoying, so I injected two with 0.05 gram of hydrogen cyanide in the stores in the area between Nagoya and Okiyama. It's not enough to kill, but the…
• Asaka — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention · first at 13:22
  Asaka was mentioned as a location of Glico factories affected by the threats.
  Worth the risk to the public. And of course, this had a direct knock- on effect at the company. The GCO factories in Asaka, Tokyo, and Kyushu were forced to lower production, and as a result, about a thousand people lost their jobs.

Media & podcasts

• New York Times — Media · Referenced media · 2 mentions · first at 3:28
  The New York Times reported on the Glico case, providing international coverage.
  Deal. But Gleo wasn't even a massive company in Japan at this time, it was very much still growing. The New York Times reported it made sales of $540 million the year before.…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Today I have a wild story for you. One of the strangest mysteries I've ever covered on this channel. Nobody died. Nobody was killed. Not really. If the perpetrators were caught today, literally nothing would happen. But this is one of the greatest mysteries Japan has ever seen. This is the monster with 21 faces. Throughout the mid 1980s, Japan was terrorized with blackmail aimed at large food companies and endless threats of poison snacks on the shelves of stores. Actually, no, it wasn't even just threats. Authorities did identify and remove snacks containing sodium cyanide. But each one of them was clearly labeled by the perpetrator with stickers reading danger contains poison. Luckily, no one consumed the products. Nobody died. And it doesn't seem like the perpetrator intended for them to. The criminals here made countless demands for ransoms and they never collected a single one. But

0:56 if not to gain financially, if not to hurt people, what was the intention behind all of this? What was the motive? Well, that's something we still don't know 40 years on. Our story begins on March 18th, 1984 when two masked intruders broke into the home of Katsuhisa Zaki just west of Aaka in Japan. Actually, no, broke into the home is a bit misleading. They used a key to get in. You see, Katahisa's mom lived in the house next door. And just before 9:00 p.m., two men with guns wearing white ski masks broke into her house.

1:32 They tied her up, but they didn't harm her or even ransack the house. No, they simply wanted a key to her son's house next door. I don't know if in the end she just told them where it was or if they searched the house until they found it. But once they had the key, they quickly let themselves into Katsahisa's home where him and his wife were winding down after a long, long day. They had three children, two of whom were in bed whilst their oldest daughter was downstairs with their mom, Mo. The intruders first came across Mo and the daughter. They quickly subdued them with the guns, which was a pistol and an air rifle, and then tied them up. Mo begged the men not to hurt the children, told them they could take whatever they wanted. But it was very clear that once again, robbery wasn't the main motive here. They had one goal, and that was to find Katahisa. And they do eventually find him in the bath, leaving the two

2:23 other children asleep in their bedrooms. Now, Katahisa didn't realize that their home was invaded until the moment the men walked into the bathroom. And he started fighting, asking them not to harm his family. He was told by them that as long as he cooperated, everyone would be safe. So, he did. He allowed the men to bind him and cover his head with a sack. And then they took him naked through the house into a waiting car and sped away. But why was this particular man targeted in such a strange way? Well, turns out he was a pretty big deal. He was the president of Gleco, which was a massive food company in Japan known for manufacturing sweets and snacks. They do other things, too, but you'll probably know Gico for making Pocky, which are the chocolatecovered pretzel sticks that are sold pretty worldwide now. I know they're very easy to get hold of here in the UK, at least.

3:14 And Katsahisaki was the president of Gleo. Now, he wouldn't have been a household name for this. wasn't a celebrity by any means, but within the company itself, he was a pretty big deal. But Gleo wasn't even a massive company in Japan at this time, it was very much still growing. The New York Times reported it made sales of $540 million the year before. And I can't fathom that being a smaller company, but in the grand scheme of things, it was a smaller growing company. So, kind of from the get-go, this abduction seemed very personal because why him? Why GO?

3:48 If you're going to target a big food company at this time, it wouldn't have been Gleo. At this time in Japan, this was absolutely wild. Like, abductions like this didn't happen in Japan. I read one quote in a New York Times article about this from 1984 in which a vice president of another local business group said, "If it was Italy, I might not be so surprised, but you know, in Japan, such a kidnapping is beyond my imagination. I'm unsure what their beef was with Italy specifically." Obviously, after the abduction, Katisa's wife quickly reported what had happened to the police, and the motive soon became clear, kind of. The kidnappers called the director of Gleo's HR at home, telling him that they had left a ransom note at nearby phone booth, and they demanded 1 billion yen in return for his return. At this time, that was the equivalent of about $4.5 million. So, it was a lot of money. And apparently, this

4:42 money wasn't going to be enough on its own. They also requested 100 kg of gold, which is also worth around $1.3 million. This was the largest ransom demand ever made in Japanese history. Not immediately bending to the ransom demand, the police spent the next 3 days searching for Katahisa. They were determined to find him alive. The day after the abduction, police received a recording of Katahisa in which he was reading directions for Gleo, his company, to bring ransom money to a specific restaurant. So, the police work with Gleo to bring the money to this restaurant as directed. And when they get there, it's silent. Nobody turns up to collect it, and there's no further communication. However, then after 72 hours, a bedraggled looking man walks into a police station barefoot, telling an officer, "I'm the one you're looking for." The barefoot man was obviously Katahisa. He told the police that he was

5:39 taken to a warehouse where the captains took some polaroids of him. Remember, he was naked cuz he was in the bath before he was dressed in a black overcoat and ski hat and then handcuffed. He described his captives as humane. He was given food and water. He said there were worse abduction experiences to have. And then around 10 p.m. on March 20th, he was redressed by his captives before being bound again. But this time they used ropes instead of handcuffs for some reason. But they were tied very loosely. And after the capttors left, Katahisa was very easily able to escape the rope and leave the warehouse. It was almost as if the captives had intended for him to escape. He walked into the police station at 2:22 p.m. on the 21st.

6:25 Together, Katahisa and his wife Miko were able to provide police with descriptions of the suspects, all of whom were male. Suspect A was about 5'5 tall and 40 years old. He wore a white mask, white gloves, dark clothes, and dark shoes. He was carrying a rifle, and had a low voice, and is thought that he was the leader of the group. Suspect B was shorter. He was around 5'2 with a medium build and about 35 years old. He also wore a white mask with one opening for both eyes and one opening for the mouth. He had white gloves, dark clothes, dark shoes with no laces. He had a handgun. Suspect C was the driver of the getaway car. He was younger. He was about 20 years old, 5'4 tall, and had acne. He wore a black mask. None of these men have ever been identified.

7:15 After his ordeal, Katahisa was able to go back to regular life, although no doubt significantly more traumatized than he was before. But then two weeks later, a letter arrives at his home accompanied by a bottle of eye drops filled with hydrochloric acid. The letter read, "Dear Katsahisa, how dare you break out and run away from us? I'm giving you one more chance. It's going to be 10 million yen per person in your family. So, for six people is going to be 60 million yen. At 700 p.m. on the 8th of April, I'll call the number at your house. I'll forgive the six of you once I have the money. I'll never do anything to you again. So, once again, the police handled this operation. They moved forward with the plan to hand the money over at the time specified on the note. I assume they also gave a place, a location in the note, but I couldn't find that detail in my research. But again, nothing happened. Nobody turned

8:11 up to collect the money. There was nothing suspicious seen. By 9:00 p.m., they call it off and decide to just head home. So that's twice now the captives have failed to turn up for a ransom handover. And then 2 days later, a fire happens to break out at the GCO headquarters found to start from a gasoline soaked cushion. 165 m of this building was burned to the ground. This was a pretty big fire. And then 20 minutes after this, a division of Gleco called Gleco Nutrition also had a fire breakout at their headquarters.

8:45 And the source of this fire was found to be a company car parked on the first floor of the attached parking garage. Gasoline soaked strips of cloth were found inside a plastic container inside the car. Now, this fire was very quickly found, put out. The car was even barely damaged. But a fire was started in two of the Gleo headquarters alongside the Cushion Fire. It was pretty clear that this was a case of arson. And although there's never been any confirmation that the arson and kidnappings were connected, no one ever took ownership of them. The police do consider the chances of there being connection here extremely high. They were probably done by the same people. Now, there was one potential arson suspect. A man about 5'5 was seen running away from the arson attempt in the car park. He was wearing a golf cap, workc clothes, jeans, and a white mask very similar to that worn by the abductors. He also was carrying a

9:36 Boston bag, basically a squared duffel bag. And again, he's never been apprehended. There was lots of speculation in the early days that this was an inside job. This was somebody from inside the company doing this. Inside the GCO building, they did eventually find a container full of hydrochloric acid. And they found it in a spot where it was only accessible by employees. So, was the person responsible here maybe a disgruntled employee? Maybe. Next to this container of hydrochloric acid, they also found a letter demanding a one-off payment of the equivalent of $1.3 million. Now, Katsahisa, still the president of Gleo at this point, obviously, refused to pay this ransom. At this point, he turned around and was like, "I'm not playing this game anymore." And once again, the criminals never made any effort to collect it. This habit of demanding ransoms and then not turning up for them is a trend you will see that continues

10:30 throughout the rest of this story. It's a really baffling aspect of this case because if the motive isn't really the ransom, what is it? Do they just want to cause unease and discomfort? But then there's the fires. With the fires, there was a real risk of people getting hurt. Luckily, nobody did, but there was no way for the arsonist to guarantee that. So, like, do they want to hurt people? Do they not want to hurt people? Do they want the money? Do they not want the money? As we go through this video, it's not going to get any clearer. It continues to be baffling. It's at this point the letters start being sent to the media as well as to GO directly. And the letters very much give Zodiac Killer vibes. It feels as if the writer is taunting the police. They're taunting Gico. The way they write is very cryptic. It's never entirely clear what exactly it is that the writer wants. But they signed each letter from this point

11:22 onwards as the monster or phantom with 21 faces. Or at least the Japanese translation of that. On May 10th, 1984, a letter arrived to a number of Japanese newspapers. This letter read, "To the poor policeman, glyco is annoying, so I injected two with 0.05 05 gram of hydrogen cyanide in the stores in the area between Nagoya and Okiyama. It's not enough to kill, but the target will be hospitalized. After eating Gleo, let's go to the hospital, eat Gico, and end up in the grave. Monster with 21 faces. Whoever this person is, they have a real problem with Gleco as a company.

12:02 But was it personal or was it a capitalist statement? There was some back and forth between the media and the police as to whether or not they should release this information in the letter to the public because of course this was a case of public safety. If the perpetrator really had poisoned a load of Gleco snacks on the shelves, the public probably needs to know about it. But if not, they're creating an unnecessary panic. In the end, they did decide to share it and all the major supermarkets across Japan immediately held emergency meetings, ultimately deciding to remove all Gleco products from their shelves. And Gleco also made the decision to pull their products as well because it just wasn't worth the risk to human life. The equivalent of $21 million of merchandise was pulled, more than any ransom demand made by the perpetrator.

12:50 Overnight, the Tokyo stock market saw Gleco stock levels fall to unprecedented levels, something that would continue to fall over the coming weeks. And even when eventually the Glico products were returned to the shelves, the public didn't want to buy them anymore. With a dip in sales estimated to cost the company $130 million. At this point, they didn't find any evidence a single product had actually been tampered with, but still it wasn't worth the risk to the public. And of course, this had a direct knock- on effect at the company. The GCO factories in Asaka, Tokyo, and Kyushu were forced to lower production, and as a result, about a thousand people lost their jobs.

13:33 The knock-on effect this singular letter, this singular person had, is not to be underestimated. Even if they had a personal vendetta against the president of Gleo, now they were affecting everyday people, people just trying to earn a living for themselves and for their families. And this did seem to be enough to satisfy the monster who on the 26th of June 1984 sent another letter to the press. To our fans throughout Japan were satisfied. The president of GCO has already gone around with his head hanging down low enough. We would like to forgive him. In our group, there's a four-year-old kid.

14:11 Every day, he cries for Gico. It's a drag to make a kid cry because he's deprived of the candy he loves. So, we're also really upset. It would be great if we could forgive Gleo so the supermarkets could sell their products again. With each letter, each communication, this whole thing just gets more unhinged. So, was Gleo/Katsahita forgiven because they finally deemed that the business had paid enough? Or was it really because they knew a kid who missed their sweets? Was it ever really about GCO at all? They also wrote in a letter around this point that they were leaving Japan for the summer and so would no longer be around to harass GCO.

14:50 They wrote, "Japan has gotten terribly hot and humid. So, when our work is done, we want to go to Europe, Geneva, Paris, London. We'll be in one of those places. Let's bring Pocky, the traveler's friend. Delicious Gleco products. We're eating them, too. See you in January of next year. The war, it seemed, was over. Police were no closer to catching the perpetrators, but now they were going to disappear. Or so they said. The whole thing at this point is kind of giving the ravings of a madman because by this time, the monster had actually turned their sights on other food companies across Japan. They never disappeared, like not even for a second.

15:29 On the day they apparently forgave Gleo, they demanded 50 million yen from Maradai Ham, a food company that mostly focused on meat products. They'd started harassing Maridai a couple of weeks before sending the peace treaty to Gleo. And on that same day, they also agreed to stop harassing Maridai if they paid this ransom. And this actually came in the form of a call from the monster. It was a voice recording of a woman who directed them to an envelope taped on the back of a bus stop guideboard. In this letter, they gave very detailed instructions on how to deliver this money. They were to take the 8:19 a.m.

16:05 Coyotobound train that stops at every station. Get on the second car from the back and sit on the left side marked with a circle. Either circle is fine, they wrote. If the seats in the circled area are not available, you've got to say you're sick and have somebody give up their seat. Sit on the side with the tracks and open the window so you can throw out the bag. Once you see the one meter square white flag, throw the bag out the window. Go to Kyoto and if there is no flag, then do it again. It's genuinely like something out of a heist movie at this point. And Maradai actually agreed to this ransom, unlike Leo, who had been refusing for a very long time. In the letter, the monster actually provided a ticket for this specific section of the train. Like the sheer amount of planning the monster went to for all of this. You have to wonder if they have anything else going on in their lives. Do they have a job, a

16:58 family, anything happening at all? I'm picturing somebody sat in a dark room all day every day with maps and photos and registering writing letters and coming up with detailed plans. Because most of these letters weren't just sent to the mail departments of the relevant companies. They were hidden away. There were phone calls leaving cryptic messages as to where to find them. It was this whole big treasure hunt. This all had to be the work of a group of people, multiple multiple people, because there is no way one person could do all of that. No way. Anyway, the train ransom. 2 days later, an officer surrounded by undercover officers boarded the train they were supposed to board. They kept an eye out for any suspicious characters on board this train. And there was one man who did capture all of their attentions. This man was about 35 to 45 years old, 5'7, 5'8, a muscular build with thin lips and

17:50 thin eyebrows. He was wearing a gray suit with clear glasses with clear rims and had short permed hair. He was carrying a black umbrella and a newspaper folded into four. But the thing that struck the most about this man was his eyes. He looked cunning, hunting, and they nicknamed him the foxeyed man. But it wasn't just that this man looked suspicious and had cunning eyes. He actually seemed to be very closely watching the officer carrying the money. But importantly, he never actually approached anyone. The officer watched closely for the signal to throw the money for the white flag, but the signal never came. He ended up riding the line all the way to Kyoto.

18:32 And as he was waiting to take the train back to Aaka, he noticed the foxeyed man was also waiting for the same train back. All of the officers were very aware of this man, but they didn't immediately pounce and arrest him because he hadn't actually done anything wrong. They needed to wait for the money handover, but that never came and eventually they lost track of the man. He wasn't seen again on this day at least. But his face would soon become synonymous with the monster with 21 faces. He became the number one suspect.

19:05 But let's face it, even then they didn't really have much on him other than he looked suspicious and he was on the same trains. The monster never claimed the ransom that day. So that's another ransom gone unclaimed. Did they even want the money? Because it seems like they did not. Soon more food companies across Japan start to be harassed. The theories of this originally being a personal beef with the president of Gleo seem to lose any credibility. Or maybe it started that way, but the person enjoyed the power. I don't know. One of the main companies that became a target of the monsters eye next was Moronaga, a candy company based out of Tokyo. It's always been assumed that it was the same person targeting all of these companies.

19:48 But what if it did eventually become a copycat situation? What if the original person who targeted GCO wasn't the person targeting the rest of them? Authorities have considered this a lot over the years, but all of the letters did seem to be written by the same kind of typewriter, and all of the slang and grammar used was very similar. They said it was the kind of slang you'd find in and around a sacka. They were just pretty sure it was the same person from beginning to end. At this point, by the time the monster started targeting Morinaga, the letter seemed to take on a new kind of urgency, demanding more ransoms. One letter demanded a ransom of 100 million yen and contained 30 gram of sodium hypocchloride, which is an extremely lethal substance, and three poisoned moringa food products. This letter read, "You probably know my name.

20:39 Your company is doing well because of glucose loss. So, if you feel bad about it, give us 100 million yen. If you don't follow what we say to you, we're going to place 50 snacks each for 10 different types of snacks that contain potassium cyanide all over the place. I will receive the money on Tuesday, 18th September. No matter where you are, we're watching you. This is obviously a pretty serious threat. If Morona don't pay the ransom, they're going to potentially poison hundreds of their products across Japan. And potassium cyanide kills incredibly fast. so fast.

21:17 It's said that cyanide has a very bitter taste. Apparently, it burns as it goes down. But this isn't reliably documented because anyone who consumes cyanide dies way too quickly to share details. They can die within just a minute. Obviously, a threat like this is very bad for business. Moronaga decide to do the ransom instead. But once again, the monster never turned up to collect the cash. And then on October 7th, 1984, it seems like the monster carries through on their threat. At 11:23 a.m., a man in his 20s or 30s was captured on a security camera walking into a Family Mart store in Nishamiria. He was about 5'6 with a solid muscular physique and permed hair under the hat he was wearing. He was in a baseball hat, metal frame glasses, and a light tan business casual jacket. He walked into the store and picked up a magazine before heading towards the sweet section. He seemed suspicious. He was looking around as if

22:16 he was maybe looking for cameras and then placed something on a shelf next to the sweets. He went to the till to pay for the magazine and swiftly exited. What he had placed on the shelf was a can of Moronaga fruit drops found to contain a lethal dose of sodium cyanide. Anyone could have picked this up and bought it, but maybe not because the poison package had a note attached to it, a piece of paper cell taped on reading, "This has poison in it. If you eat it, you will die." This is fascinating because it seems like the monster was finally willing to see through on their threat to harm people, but not enough to not warn them first.

22:56 It seems to be that the number one priority here was harming the Moronaga company and not hurting the regular person. On that same day, authorities across Japan in Hyogo, Asaka, and Kyoto five more poisoned Moranaga products on the shelves. More than a dozen were found. This seemed to be a very coordinated attack. There had to be more than one person placing these products on the shelves. I mean, they'd already suspected that by this point. There were at least three people involved in the kidnapping of Isaki, but this seemed to confirm it once and for all. The next morning, the 8th of October, finds more cyanide lace products as well as more letters being sent to the newspapers.

23:36 This letter went to all mothers in Japan. In autumn, appetite is huge. Candy is great. When you think sweets, no matter what you say, it's moronaga, right? We added some special flavor to it. The flavor of potassium cyanide is a little bitter. Tell children not to get cavities and buy it for them. We place 20 pieces between Hakarta and Tokyo. There are two flavors with 0.2 g and 0.5 g of acid. After 10 days, we will place 30 of them without any sign across Japan. We're preparing a lot more for later. Look forward to it. Monster with 21 faces. You can imagine the kind of public panic this caused. And by that evening, all shops had removed their entire stock of Morinaga products, just as they had previously done with Gleco.

24:26 Over the next few days, more poison snacks were found, and as a result, Morinaga had to have massive cuts in their production. 450 people were let go from their jobs and their stock price plummeted even lower than Gleos had. I suppose with Gleo, it was all threats. With Morinaga, there was actual poison. Luckily, it doesn't seem like anyone actually died. Like, the notes did do their job in warning people, but it didn't really matter. Nobody wanted to be poisoned. And the monster/monsters didn't stop. This wasn't enough for them. The letters and threats kept coming. They said they were going to poison the products again. But this time, if Moronaga products returned to the shelves, there would be no warning.

25:09 No one would have any idea that they were about to die. And they followed through on this. They kind of half followed through on this in February 1985, so months later, they did find several more Moronaga products laced with cyanide. But still, nobody died because despite what they said about not including the notes, they were once again very clearly marked as poison. By this point though, it wasn't just Morinaga. They had also started targeting another company called House Foods, and they agreed to pay over 100 million yen in exchange for being left alone. The monster left instructions for a house foods worker to leave the money in cash in a bin marked with a white cloth in the Shea Prefecture, which is just east of Kyoto. But when they got there, they found the white cloth on the ground instead, a sign that the monster had called off the deal. And then a police officer spots a man in glasses, a

26:03 foxeyed man, in a car parked nearby. A car that had also been seen hanging around earlier that day. A car chase ensued, but the man was able to escape and his car was later found abandoned at a nearby train station. Investigation later found that this car had been stolen and inside they found a police radio which allowed the monster to listen in to police conversations. It had always kind of seemed like this monster was one step ahead. He always knew what was going on. He always knew how to avoid the police. And this made sense. This whole investigation was infuriating. this criminal, this group seemed to just enjoy playing with the police. They demanded money. They never picked it up. They didn't seem to have any solid motive in what they were doing. And they always seem to know what to do next. And now with the police radio, that made a bit more sense. This person was so tuned in, literally and

26:56 figuratively. Throughout the end of 1984, the monster continues to harass House Foods. They continued to harass Morinaga and they also eventually moved their attention to Fia, which is a restaurant chain. I don't know what the deal was with focusing just on food companies. There was clearly something in that. And with more companies being targeted, you think there'd be more evidence, more things to investigate. There wasn't. So, in the new year, January 1985, police finally decide to go more public with this case. They weren't having any luck privately. Maybe the public would be able to provide more information. At this point, they finally publicly released a sketch of the foxeyed man, him having been seen at the sights of two separate incidents, kind of confirmed that he had a big something to do with this. He'd been seen by multiple different officers at this point. They were able to get a pretty

27:45 accurate sketch. Not that it really mattered, though, because nobody came forward identifying him, and the threats just continued to come, more and more companies being targeted. As it came to a whole year of the threats, a big Japanese newspaper wrote an editorial in which they wrote the line, "We do not recall a case in which criminals have made such fools of the police." In Japanese culture, culture based on a foundation of respect, this was really damning. A lot of people had no idea how the police still hadn't solved this case. It felt like it should have been simple. Clearly, it wasn't. There was so much potential evidence coming in every single day. They'd let the foxside man go twice. Every time somebody bought themselves a snack, they found themselves wondering if it was going to kill them. This was a big deal for the general public. People were really upset with the police. Whilst there were no

28:40 deaths that came directly as a result of the monster of the poisonings, there was one indirect death. The police superintendent of Shika Prefecture, 59-year-old Sho Yamamoto, was demoted. he was reassigned to a different department. He had been the one in charge of the operation in November with the house foods ransom where the foxeyed man was able to escape and he took this very personally which isn't a surprise because a lot of the media and the public blamed him as well. There was a lot of pressure on him and other police superintendents across the country to try and get this solved and it was a point of shame that he couldn't do it.

29:15 So just one day after being demoted on August 7th, 1985, Shoji Yamamoto walked into his garden. He dowsted himself in kerosene and set himself on fire. He ended his own life by self emulation. Now this is something people only tend to do when they're trying to either raise awareness of a cause or when they feel like they really deserve to be punished. This was a tragic and awful death and he felt like he needed to punish himself for the failure. He felt like he had failed the Japanese public. Days later on August 12th, the monster sent another letter to the media and this would be the final letter they ever sent. It read, "Yamoto of Shega Prefecture police died. How stupid of him. We've got no friends or secret hiding places in Shega. It's Yoshino or Shakarta who should have died. What have they been doing for as long as one year and 5 months? Don't let bad guys like us get away with it. There are many more

30:10 fools who want to copy us." No. Korea Yamamoto died like a man. So, we decided to give our condolences. We decided to forget about torturing food making companies. If anyone blackmails any of the food making companies, it's not us, but someone copying us. We are bad guys. That means we've got more to do other than bullying companies. It's fun to lead a bad man's life. Monster with 21 faces. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that despite their very harsh words, still, the monster felt guilty that somebody had actually died because of their actions. Because despite everything, they threatened. They'd never actually killed anybody. They said that they would poison snacks without the notes, but they never followed through on that. And now someone died and they ended their crusade. Was it out of guilt? Had it gone too far, or was it because they finally felt like somebody had paid? Was this what they wanted all

31:05 along? Well, we don't know. We'll never know because after this point, the monster was never heard from again. There were a few copycats as they suspected, but nothing ever stuck. The police continued investigating for years. They were determined to find the perpetrators, but they never did. They released a sketch of a foxide ban again. They released the security footage from the store. They released recordings of a phone call in which it sounded like a ransom demand was being made by a woman and a child. Thousands of tips came in from the public, but they never led anywhere. This man, these men, this group were like a ghost. It's estimated that between 1984 and 85, 1if of Japan's entire police force were working solely on this case. And they were still never able to find anything. It's incredible.

31:52 It does make me wonder if perhaps the person doing this was linked to the police. I know they had access to police radio stations, but surely there had to be more than that. like this person seemed to be one step ahead all the time. Was there somebody in the police working with them, tipping them off? Maybe. The most baffling thing about this case is the seeming lack of motive. Not once was it ever clear what the monster ever really wanted. Did they just want to [ __ ] with the big corporations? Were they anti- capitalist and just wanted to see them tank? Was it political? It's as good a motive as any, although it seemed very weak, seeing as no statement was ever actually made.

32:28 didn't further any political motive. I do think it's very clear that despite what they said, money wasn't the motive here and nor was death. I wouldn't be surprised if this maybe did start as a personal vendetta against the president of Gleo. Maybe it was an exe employee. Maybe somebody he had wronged in his personal life and maybe it just spiraled out of control from there. Remember that this started with Isaki's kidnap. It seemed very premeditated, very planned. But then they never did anything like that again. They never kidnapped anyone else. they switched to threatening letters and the blackmail. Maybe they just liked the power it gave them. And once they realized that Cleico wasn't going to bend, they decided to just move on. Maybe it became a game. Like just how long can we get away with this? But actually poisoning sweets that could well have ended up in the hands of children. That doesn't seem like a game.

33:19 Perhaps instead of this being personal against Gico, maybe this was personal against the police. Maybe they wanted to see how far they could go and still evade the police. is how frustrated they could make them. I don't know. The motive still evades everyone. In all the years since this, over 40 years now since the first letter, the police have only ever publicly named one suspect, a man called Miyazaki. Physically, he looked just like the Foxside man, and he did also have a bit of a history with Gleo. In the 70s, he'd had a labor dispute with them, and he was also involved in a number of whistleblowing incidents in which he'd spoken about how Gleo had been disposing of their industrial waste in local bodies of water. It was very illegal. Also, Miyazaki's father was apparently a big crime boss. However, he was able to provide alibis for lots of the days where the monster had interacted with

34:07 the police. I presume maybe the day on the train and the day in the Sheba Prefecture. But of course, if he was simply the leader or one cog in the bigger monster with 21 faces machine, then it's not surprising that he'd be able to have alibis. This was clearly a group of people. But the police did eventually clear him of being a suspect, though, and presumably they have their reasons for doing so. So, the one named suspect isn't really a suspect at all, at least not anymore. To this day, the case remains unsolved, and the police closed their investigation a long time ago. Japan's statute of limitations has long expired for these crimes.

34:44 Kidnapping and assault expired in 1994 and the attempted murder and mass poisoning in the year 2000. Investigators worked hard up until the very last moment to try and pin somebody down for this crime. But they never had any luck. They followed through on 28,000 tips and looked at 125,000 people of interest to no avail. Nothing. The monster with 21 faces could literally come forward today and identify themselves. They could write an entire book about their story and why they did what they did and not face a single legal backlash. But they've never once done this. Not once in 25 years since the statute expired. So this whole case is fascinating. Was this the work of a big-time criminal? Was it somebody who maybe got in over their head? What was the motive? I think I'd lean towards either being a personal vendetta that went too far or it being a political anti- capitalist thing or maybe it was

35:40 somebody wanting to lower stock prices so they could swoop in and buy them low and make some good money. It literally could have been anything. I wonder if we will ever find out. We haven't in 40 years. Let me know in the comments if you have any interesting theories as to potential motives in this case. I would love to hear what all of you guys think. This case is so fascinating because nobody directly died as a result of this. You could argue that somebody did die as a result of this, but not at the hands of the criminals and yet this is the biggest unsolved mystery in Japan's history. This is the one, the big one that everyone talks about and everyone wants to get solved and I'm so intrigued to know why they did it. Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you like what I'm doing here on this channel, then please do not forget to interact with this video in any way you can.

36:28 Leave a comment, like it, subscribe to my channel. You can even boost videos, like hype videos now, which is a new thing. I haven't seen it happen in any of my videos yet. So, if you do want to hype this video, I think it's like a little like party popper thing. You'll see it down below. Try it. I want to see what happens on my end when somebody does that. Thank you so much, and I will see you in the next one. Bye, guys.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "the MONSTER with 21 faces | Japan's greatest unsolved mystery"?

In order: 0:00 New York Times, Monster with 21 Faces, Katsuhisa Zaki, sodium cyanide; 5:00 hydrochloric acid; 10:00 Gleco, Glico, Monster with 21 Faces, Glico products; 15:00 Monster with 21 Faces, Moronaga, Aaka, Kyoto; 20:00 Moronaga, Monster with 21 Faces, sodium cyanide; 25:00 House Foods, Sho Yamamoto, Moronaga, Kyoto; 30:00 Monster with 21 Faces, Hayo Miyazaki; 35:00 Monster with 21 Faces.

What is mentioned in this Georgia Marie episode?

25 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Monster with 21 Faces, Gleco, Glico, Katsuhisa Zaki, Glico products, Moronaga. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "the MONSTER with 21 faces | Japan's greatest unsolved mystery"?

The episode runs 37 min; the transcript is about 6,776 words in 48 timestamped sections.

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