＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
Recently, a novel (or memoir?) written by a man named “Shirota” who claims to be the “real culprit” of the “300 million yen robbery” has become a hot topic. Is this man named Shirota really the real culprit? Or is it just a “novel” written by someone who claims to be the real culprit?
１．What is the “300 Million Yen Robbery”?
The “300 Million Yen Robbery” is the largest cash robbery in history, which occurred on December 10, 1968 . A cash transport vehicle was transporting about 300 million yen in “bonus funds” from the Nippon Trust Bank Kokubunji branch in Fuchu, Tokyo to the Toshiba Fuchu plant when a criminal disguised as a “white motorcycle police officer” stole the entire vehicle along with the 300 million yen. Converted to today’s value, this is equivalent to about 2 billion yen.
The “statute of limitations” (7 years) expired on December 10, 1975 , and the “civil statute of limitations” (20 years) expired on December 10, 1988 , and the case became “dead end” (unsolved). This case is the most famous “perfect crime” in the history of Japanese crime.
It was an unprecedented investigation, with 110,000 suspects, a total of 170,000 police officers involved, and investigation costs exceeding 900 million yen over seven years.
A few days before the incident, a threatening letter demanding money had been delivered to the branch manager of Nippon Trust Bank’s Kokubunji branch. Perhaps sensing the police’s stakeout, the criminal never showed up to collect the money at the location specified in the letter, and the attempt was foiled.
In the “300 Million Yen Case,” 120 pieces of left-behind items were left behind, and the investigators underestimated the case, thinking it would be “an easy case to solve.” The careless handling of the left-behind items may have been one of the reasons why the case “went cold.”
Also, according to an article in the August 1980 issue of Bungeishunju written by Kobayashi Hisazou and Kondo Shoji, the famous “montage photo” was not created based on the memories or testimony of cash transport truck drivers and security guards, but rather used a “photo of someone else” who looked very similar to boy S, a member of a delinquent group known as the “Tachikawa Group,” who was considered to be the prime suspect from the beginning.
The boy S was the son of a motorcycle police officer, and it seemed impossible to use a photo of the underage son of an active police officer. This “montage photo” also contributed to the confusion in the investigation.
This “photo of another person” was taken when the person was arrested and imprisoned for a different crime, and it is said that the person in the “montage photo” was in prison at the time the “300 Million Yen Robbery” occurred.
Moreover, Boy S, the prime suspect, “committed suicide by drinking potassium cyanide” five days after the incident. However, his friend said, “It’s inconceivable that he would commit suicide,” and the bag containing the potassium cyanide that was left in the house only had his father’s fingerprints on it. It’s possible that he was killed by his father. On the same day, the police were staking out the area around Boy S’s home, and after Boy S returned home, he apparently got into an argument with his father, and after a loud noise was heard, it suddenly became quiet. When the police raided the house later, Boy S was already dead.
If the above article by Kobayashi Hisazo and Kondo Shoji is true, it means that the police were convinced from the beginning that Boy S was the perpetrator. Furthermore, it means that they were conducting a meaningless investigation by searching for a “perpetrator who was already dead.”
In 1971, the police changed their investigative approach, deciding that the culprit did not need to resemble the montage photograph, and in 1974, the montage photograph was officially destroyed.
Judging from this story, it seems likely that the prime suspect, Boy S, was definitely “one of the criminal group (probably the actual perpetrator).” If that was the case, it is possible that a clue to the solution could have been found by focusing the investigation on members of the “Tachikawa group.”
The investigation, dubbed “Operation Roller,” appears to have been off the mark.
As an aside, there was no actual damage to the victims in the “300 million yen incident.” Toshiba was compensated by insurance money received from a Japanese insurance company, and the “Japanese insurance company” was also compensated by the reinsurance company.
Incidentally, this “300 million yen case” does not constitute “robbery” because the criminal did not “assault or intimidate” the security guard to steal the money. Also, the criminal did not make the security guard “hand over” the cash, but the security guard simply left the car trusting the words of the “motorcycle police officer” that “explosives were planted,” so it does not constitute “fraud” but “theft.”
２．Various “suspects”
In addition to the boy S mentioned above, several other people who suddenly became rich after the incident were investigated as suspects, but were ultimately found innocent. Boy S has also been determined to be innocent.
In addition, from April to August 1968, the same year as the “300 Million Yen Robbery,” nine “Tama Agricultural Cooperative Blackmail Cases” occurred, and based on the handwriting of the threatening letters, it is believed that these crimes were committed by the same criminal group. The perpetrator of the “Yokosuka Line Train Bombing Incident,” mentioned in the threatening letters to the Tama Agricultural Cooperative, was arrested one month before the “300 Million Yen Robbery” occurred, and was executed just before the statute of limitations for the “300 Million Yen Robbery” expired.
According to Suzuki Koichi, who was a senior inspector at the time, another person who was thought to be “one of the criminal group” was the “gay bar owner” of the “Tachikawa Group” who was like an older brother to Boy S. After the incident, he became “mysteriously wealthy” and moved to Manila. He said that the source of his large amount of money was “from a foreign patron.”
３．Is Shirota really the real culprit?
I have not read the book “I planned and carried out the Fuchu 300 million yen robbery” published by Poplar Publishing. Also, I don’t have any intention of reading it.
This book was originally a memoir posted on a novel submission website called “Let’s Become a Novelist.”
This is just my hunch, but I think the author of this book is not the “real culprit,” but rather an aspiring novelist who has read through novels by Seicho Matsumoto and Hiroshi Sano about the “300 Million Yen Robbery,” and has written his own theory from the perspective of the “real culprit.” Or, he may have some kind of connection with the “Tachikawa Group.”
４．Was this really a “perfect crime”?
Hiratsuka Yabei, a legendary detective who was brought into the “300 Million Yen Robbery” investigation midway through, advocated the “single perpetrator theory.” He is famous for his persistent investigation into the “Yoshinobu-chan kidnapping and murder case,” said to be the largest kidnapping case in the postwar period, which occurred in 1963, and for breaking down the perpetrator’s alibi and forcing him to confess, thus solving a case that was on the verge of becoming a cold case.
However, I believe that the “300 Million Yen Robbery” was a “theatrical crime” and that it is impossible that a “single perpetrator” could have committed the crime. The “single perpetrator theory” of Mr. Yabei Hiratsuka also seems to have been one of the factors that led the investigation in the wrong direction.
With the suicide of “Boy S,” who was thought to hold the key to the case, and the execution of the suspect in the “Yokosuka Line train bombing incident,” am I the only one who feels like the truth has been hidden in the darkness?
I also feel that the fact that this crime is believed to have involved the “family of a police officer” like “Boy S” casts a shadow over it.
This is just my own speculation, but I don’t think the “300 million yen robbery” was a “perfect crime based on a meticulous plan.” There were quite a few “flaws” revealed, such as leaving a large amount of belongings behind.
Despite this, isn’t it possible that the police’s incompetence in their initial investigation ultimately led to the case remaining unsolved?
Specifically, this includes the following:
（1) The handling of evidence was sloppy. The police put their caps on to make the perpetrator’s sweat undetectable before the forensic team could collect it.
(2) The sloppy creation of the montage photos. The montage photos were not created based on interviews with witnesses such as drivers and security guards. Instead, the police used photos of people who looked similar to Boy A, who they determined to be the perpetrator, based on the testimony of a witness that “Boy A resembles the perpetrator.”
(3) The failure to conduct a targeted investigation. The police failed to conduct a thorough investigation that focused on the Tachikawa group, which was seen as a likely perpetrator from the beginning, and wasted a lot of effort on the misguided “roller operation.”
(4) The theory that the famous detective Hiratsuka Yabei, who took over the investigation halfway through, was the sole perpetrator. This brought the investigation back to square one.