I run a clothing store in Higashi Osaka City. I’m writing to you because there is something I hope you can investigate promptly.
Starting several weeks ago, I noticed that something like a yellow string had been tied to the telephone pole in front of my store. At first I wasn’t concerned by it, but every morning when I look at it, the number of strings has multiplied. At first I thought it was just in front of my store, but looking closer I realised the strings are tied everywhere. Moreover, in front of my store is particularly bad.
It’s constantly on my mind. Who tied these strings, and for what purpose? Could you please investigate for us?
This letter was introduced at the start of the episode. Somebody was tying strings around town, and nobody knew why. Not only that, but the numbers were increasing as time went on, making the residents feel uncomfortable and unsettled. Who was doing this, and why?
INVESTIGATION
The shop owner ran a store called SAURUS. When Masa went out to investigate, he saw the vinyl strings attached to the telephone pole first-hand. According to the owner, they had been tied there two or three weeks earlier. At first the strings were yellow, but after that, blue strings were added. It turned out he discovered red strings tied behind the store as well, and as recently as the day before, white strings.
Both the store owner and Masa were understandably unnerved by these strange events. Thinking to lift a fingerprint from the strings, Masa called the local police station. He was surprised to discover that the police already had an officer in charge of dealing with the string incidents, and he was put through to him directly. Masa attempted to explain the fear residents were feeling and wondered if they could get a fingerprint from the strings. The officer came out to meet him, but explained that tying strings to poles wasn’t a crime so there wasn’t much they could do about it.
After further investigations, Masa discovered the strings covered almost the entire area near Konoikeshinden Station. He attempted to remove a yellow string from a gymnastics bar in the park and discovered it was tied twice in a hard knot. He could determine no pattern to their placement around town either. They appeared to be entirely random.
Next, he called the local city hall. Once more he was put through to someone in charge of the string incidents; the random strings around town were so prolific that both the police and city hall had people in charge of dealing with them. The person in charge informed Masa they also had no idea what was going on, but he did confirm they weren’t being used as signs for construction work.
Masa then went to a local stationery store to uncover whether they’d sold a lot of vinyl string recently. The owner confirmed they were out of yellow because someone had recently purchased them all, while other colours were low on stock for the same reason. Whoever the perpetrator was, it was likely they bought the string from that very store, but the owner had no idea who it might have been.
Shortly thereafter, the police went around town taking all the vinyl string down. Nobody knew when it might return though, and the fear that they would be back soon remained. Masa continued his investigations and discovered the end of the stringed areas was a telephone pole in front of a gas station near the Kusumibashi intersection. There were no strings past that point, and the pole itself was covered in what appeared to be hundreds of blue strings.
After speaking to the gas station attendant, he revealed that they even found strings tied to their car wash. They were tied there about two or three months earlier. Masa joked that they were cursed, but the staff claimed it didn’t bother them because nobody was getting hurt.
And that marked the end of the investigation. Masa mentioned it was the strangest case he’d ever worked on, and a note appeared at the end of the show:
End of Investigation
We will no longer be receiving information related to this case. Please understand.
POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS
As the urban legend states, this is the only investigation the program ever put a stop to, and no reason was given as to why. After airing the episode, it was brushed under the rug and never spoken of again, even though it was clearly unsolved. This sent the rumour mill into overdrive.
One theory was that the strings were leftover from signs hung on poles. These signs did use the same string, but a single glance at the number of strings was enough to put that rumour to rest. Some poles were densely packed with them, more strings than people could count, and as the residents themselves said, they couldn’t recall ever seeing signs there. That idea was out.
Kamioka Ryutaro, a comedian on the show, suggested that maybe the strings made an image when viewed from the sky. In later years on the internet, people chimed in that perhaps the mysterious strings were some sort of spiritual barrier, and that the image was protecting Osaka. However, Masa mapped all the strings he came across and no discernible image could be seen. Whether they were random or not, they looked random and didn’t make any recognisable picture.
The final theory was that the show did uncover the perpetrator… but that person was unfit for broadcast. It didn’t take long for people to start putting two and two together, and the general consensus was that this was the most likely reason. Why else would they air an investigation, only to abandon it at the end? The show always got to the bottom of its viewer requests, so it was odd that this one was called off.
But was it really? If the show had found the culprit, but the person was perhaps mentally ill, they would be unable to put that on air. Instead, they announced an end to the investigation, and that was that.
THE PERPETRATOR
In 2006, video of the original episode was shared online, bringing the mysterious unsolved legend back to the public’s mind. Someone who claimed to be a local that appeared in the background of the original Tantei! Knight Scoop episode posted that he had seen the person tying strings to poles on his way home from school. It was dark, however, so he couldn’t see the person very well.
A few years later, in 2012, an anonymous poster claimed that his friend pointed a woman out and called her the “String Lady.” Another poster shared that the show abruptly ended investigations because in reality they had discovered the person tying the strings, and she was mentally handicapped. Supposedly, she tied the strings so she didn’t get lost while she was out walking, and that was why they grew in number day by day, so they stood out.
In 2015, another person claiming to be a local also posted that it was an unemployed woman with a mental disability. She was seen walking around town holding rolls of string, most often in the early morning. Because she looked like a regular housewife out to do some shopping, nobody ever suspected her of anything.
A story also began to spread that when the police asked the woman why she did it, she answered with “I don’t know why, I just have to.” The internet being what it is, there is no proof that the perpetrator actually was a mentally handicapped woman to begin with, nor that she was ever arrested, nor that that was her response to theoretical police questioning.
Tantei! Knight Scoop has never said anything further about the case, so officially, it ended in mystery. The internet, never happy to let a mystery go unsolved, supposedly uncovered the culprit, and as the best conspiracy theories go, it seems like it could be the truth. Is it? Perhaps we’ll never know, but for now, it’s the strongest unofficial answer that we have.
Jokes
Rhinoceros Beetle
“Mum, do we have any batteries?” a young boy asked his mother.
“I think there are some in the bottom drawer,” she replied. “What do you need them for?”
“Um, my Rhinoceros beetle stopped moving, so I’m gonna change its batteries,” the boy answered with a smile.
Kids these days don’t have many chances to interact with nature, and so there are many children who make small misunderstandings like this.
ABOUT
Though it might seem more recent, this urban legend has been around since at least the 1980s. The story itself is pre
tty straight-forward, but this particular joke came about because of the worry that children were spending too much time with technology and not enough time outside with nature. All the boy knows is technology, so when his pet beetle dies, he assumes it just needs a change of batteries. Bug catching is still a hugely popular pastime with Japanese kids today, however, so it seems unlikely that any are going to confuse a real bug for a robot toy anytime soon.
Blue Urine
One day, a nappy company received a phone call from a distraught mother.
“How can we help you, ma’am?”
“I’m sorry, but my child’s urine is yellow! Your commercials showed it to be blue, so I’m a little worried…”
ABOUT
We may laugh, but there seem to be people out there who, perhaps due to a lack of general education, believe that babies’ urine is supposed to be blue, and that it turns yellow over time. By the same token, there are some men who (apparently) believe that women’s menstrual blood is also blue thanks to these commercials.
Of course, blue is used in diaper commercials not because it resembles the actual colour of the liquid coming out, but because blue is easy to see against white. Your baby’s yellow urine is perfectly fine, and if your menstrual blood is blue, well, you’ll probably want to see a doctor about that.
There is a real disease called “blue diaper syndrome,” however, which is a rare metabolic disorder that can cause a baby’s urine to stain their diaper blue. It is an unfortunate coincidence that has nothing to do with why commercials use blue liquid to show off their diapers’ soaking power.
There have been calls from some corners of the Japanese internet to change the colour of the liquid used in commercials to help avoid this confusion. The argument being that some people don’t have the support of other parents or family members around them, and so learning that their newborn baby doesn’t pee blue can be distressing. Considering the information age we now live in, and how it takes only a few seconds of research to discover that “hmm, my baby’s yellow urine is perfectly fine,” these calls haven’t been taken very seriously.
A Brother’s Jealousy
One day, a young boy discovered he was about to become an older brother. He had lived his life happy and free until that point, but once his young brother was born, he realised that his parents would devote all their time to him instead.
And so they did, and the boy grew angrier and angrier, until finally his parents told him off. “You’re an older brother now, grow up!”
The boy made plans to kill his baby brother instead. His brother was always suckling from their mother’s breast, so if he could somehow coat it in poison, that would solve his problem.
The boy got to work right away. Once his younger brother was dead, he would get all the attention again. However, the following day something unexpected happened.
It wasn’t his younger brother that died. It was his father.
ABOUT
If you didn’t laugh at this one, you’re a better person than I am. This joke has been circulating for at least a few decades now, and oftentimes includes a variation where it isn’t the father who dies from suckling on the mother’s poisoned breast, but the next-door neighbour instead… Whoops.
Another version, which you may have heard before, tells of a baby that says a name each day, and the very next day that person dies. Much in the same vein as this tale, the twist comes at the end when the baby says “father” and it’s the next-door neighbour who dies. Whoops.
These are somewhat similar to the “milkman” stories we share in the West. Japan doesn’t have a history of milkmen, so the joke doesn’t translate well, but adultery with a neighbour is universal.
The Hairdresser’s Customer
A hairdresser close to the station was closing up shop for the day. It was a little early, but the young woman was the only person there, so she began closing up.
Right at that moment, a businessman burst into the store. The woman informed him that they were closing for the day, but the man said he had an important meeting the next day and he needed his hair cut immediately.
The hairdresser relented and covered the man in a sheet. She then went out the back to grab her tools. On her way back, the woman saw something unbelievable. The man’s hand was moving frantically underneath the sheet near his crotch.
The woman was alone and, suddenly fearful, she threw her tools at the back of the man’s head. The man passed out, and the hairdresser fled to the nearby police box. The police accompanied her back to the store and when they removed the sheet from the unconscious man, they discovered the man’s glasses and handkerchief sitting beside him.
The man had been cleaning his glasses.
ABOUT
Perhaps you’ve heard an urban legend extremely similar to this one. It often goes by the name “The Hairdresser’s Error” overseas, and it’s believed this legend originated in the late 1970s. This is one of the few legends that made its way to Japanese shores and remained almost wholly unchanged. This story is still shared around Japan today, particularly amongst beauticians and those training to be hairdressers.
There’s also a similar legend that takes place on a plane:
During a flight, a cabin attendant noticed a man’s hands moving underneath his blanket. The movements seemed suspicious, so she went to her superior and alerted him as to what was going on. They went to check on the man together and, as expected, his hands were still moving in rubbing motions under the blanket.
“Excuse me, sir, but what are you doing?” the superior asked in a strong tone of voice. The man looked back at them absentmindedly.
“Is there something wrong with fixing my camera mid-flight?”
The man removed his hands from under the blanket to reveal a camera that he was holding tightly.
Sometimes a funny story crosses all cultures and even jobs.
General Offensive
During the war, roughly 400 members of the Imperial Army found themselves besieged on an island. They were surrounded by the Americans.
The Japanese soldiers abandoned their base on the shore and made their way into the jungle. The American soldiers first sent in a reconnaissance team to check if anybody was still hiding, and to investigate how many were there. They would be able to tell this by checking the toilets and judging from the amount of excrement.
The American soldiers checked the toilets and were shocked. They reported back to their commanding officer.
“Sir, there are over 2000 Japanese soldiers hiding on this island!”
2000 wasn’t a number they could be careless with, but it was far too many soldiers to take home as prisoners of war as well. The commanding officer ordered the island to be surrounded and sent his men in for a general offensive attack.
The 400 Japanese soldiers found themselves at the end of an honourable defeat.
ABOUT
The punchline to this joke may not be immediately apparent to those who don’t know the other urban legend it’s playing off; the idea that Japanese people have longer intestines than Westerners.
This idea has been around since at least the 1800s. The theory behind it is that Westerners eat a lot of meat, making their intestines shorter and thicker. Japanese people eat a lot more vegetables and fibre, making their intestines more malleable and much, much longer. Or so the story goes.
In the above tale with the soldiers, the Americans investigate the toilets and intend to judge from the poop levels how many Japanese soldiers are there. Because Japanese people (supposedly) have such long intestines—which the Americans are unaware of—the poop levels are extraordinary and they judge there to be five times as many people hiding on the island than there really is. Cue the Americans being extra cautious and then presumably being very surprised to discover there were only 400 Imperial soldiers and not 2000.
Which begs the question, is it true? Do Japanese people really have longer intestines? Can they confuse a Western army with their astronomical poop leve
ls into believing they have more soldiers than they really do? It’s become a kind of general knowledge thing at this point, and you can find numerous anecdotes from doctors who agree that, yes, Asian people tend to have much longer intestines than Western folk. Ask a random Japanese person on the street and chances are that, more often than not, they will also agree. They have longer intestines. It’s just a fact, everyone knows it. But is it?
A study by the University of Tokyo was held in 2013 to get to the bottom (ahem) of this myth once and for all. The results of the study surmised:
“In conclusion, we found that there was no overall difference in the total colorectal length or rectosigmoid length between Japanese and American adults. The total colorectal length increased with age in both the Japanese and American groups.”
So, there you have it. Don’t let your dreams be dreams. You too can reach the poop levels attained by the soldiers in this urban legend if you just try hard enough. Maybe. At any rate, there doesn’t seem to be any scientific basis behind the “common knowledge” hidden in this legend, but hey, the more you know.
Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends: Volume Two Page 14