This urban legend’s roots can be found in a story that was going around in 1999, however; a time when Japan’s mind was on potential attacks from somewhere much closer: North Korea. That story goes as follows:
A young woman was dating a Korean man who lived in Japan. One day, the man suddenly told her, “I can’t tell you the details, but I won’t be able to see you anymore,” and broke up with her.
A short while later, the woman received a letter.
“On July 25, take your family and go on a trip. Whatever you do, don’t be in Tokyo on this date.”
While the date and place changed from version to version, just like the Islamic terrorist, this man warned the woman to get out because he still had feelings for her. In 1999, tensions were high between Japan and North Korea because Japan claimed North Korea had shot a missile over their borders, while North Korea claimed it was a satellite.
Another similar story also exists about the 1995 Tokyo sarin gas attacks. In this one, a young man is informed by an old friend who joined Aum Shinrikyo not to go to Shinjuku on March 20, 1995. Whether this story was the original, an off-shoot, or simply a similar legend that spread around the same time, no-one knows for sure. What is for certain, however, is that when people begin to fear for their lives, these types of stories will always find a way to come around again.
Tokyo Disneyland Kidnappers
A husband and wife took their four-year-old daughter to Tokyo Disneyland for a day of fun. They took their eyes off her for just a moment, but when they looked back, she was gone. They went to the “Lost Children Centre” and asked them if they had seen their daughter. Unfortunately, she wasn’t there.
All the couple could do was wait. However, the staff member’s face suddenly turned stern, and he began making calls to various departments around the park. He then ordered all exits and entrances be closed. All except one.
The couple grew even more worried. The staff member took them to the single remaining exit, then turned to them.
“Listen to me carefully. I want you to stay here and watch everyone who’s trying to leave the park with a child in tow. They might have already dyed your daughter’s hair. They might have changed her clothing. Look very closely, and don’t let them slip through.”
They slowly came to understand what was happening and carefully checked each person who passed by. Suddenly, they saw a man trying to leave with a sleeping boy in his arms. They almost missed him. The child had short hair, was wearing boy’s clothes, and didn’t look anything like their daughter. However, looking closer, the child was wearing shoes with a beloved girls’ character design on them. There was no doubt about it. Those were their daughter’s shoes!
The man was apprehended by the park’s security guards. The child had been drugged, but she was otherwise okay and returned safely to her parents. However, it was strange that such a large park would go to such measures to find a single child. There had to be a reason why.
In reality, kidnappings are extremely frequent at Tokyo Disneyland. The large-scale operation is performed by many skilled kidnappers who repeatedly take children from within the park. They take the children to sell their organs on the black market. Of course, the people running Tokyo Disneyland are aware of this, and the police are involved as well. But if the mass media knew, then families would stop visiting the park, and for that reason Tokyo Disneyland does everything in their power to keep the news from getting out.
ABOUT
Tokyo Disneyland, the first Disney park to be built outside of the United States, opened on April 15, 1983, in Chiba Prefecture. The park sees millions of visitors each year and is the third most-visited theme park in the world. Safe to say, it’s a busy place, but are people really stealing children to sell their organs on the black market? Is Disney paying the media off so news of this doesn’t get out?
This rumour first started to spread around Japan in the spring of 1996. Newspapers were quick on the case, but they were unable to find any evidence of such kidnappings taking place. In fact, it turned out that this legend found its way to Japan via America as well, as there have long been rumours of kidnappings in several American Disney parks.
There have never been any reports of children actually being kidnapped from Disney, and Disney’s in-park security is top notch. On top of their security camera system, they have security officers in the park keeping an eye out for suspicious individuals, as well as the characters and other staff. There are eyes everywhere, and the majority of cases where a child goes missing are settled in less than 15 minutes.
Like many urban legends of this nature, it’s unlikely that this legend was designed to bring financial harm to Disney, but rather to serve as a warning to parents that, even in a park as large and popular as Disney, you should keep an eye on your child at all times. All it takes is a single moment and then they’ll be gone.
Murder Corps
There’s a terrifying fate awaiting those who badmouth the Imperial family. There is an organisation under the jurisdiction of the government called the “Murder Corps,” and it is their job to take care of those who speak ill of Japan’s Imperial household.
ABOUT
As one commenter so succinctly put it, “If that were true, there would be nearly nobody left on 2chan.” That about sums this one up.
On a somewhat related side-note, in Thailand it is against the law to insult the monarchy. Article 112 of Thailand’s criminal code states that “Whoever, defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to fifteen years.” It’s not quite murder, but you probably still don’t want to do it, and there have been cases of people getting much longer sentences than 15 years for badmouthing the royal family online.
Japan is not Thailand, however, and you’re free to badmouth the Imperial family all you want. It’s what 2chan spends a lot of its time doing, after all.
Love Hotel Mirror
A young couple went to stay in a love hotel, but they soon ended up getting into an argument over something small. Neither was the type to back down, and before long, the woman threw her handbag at the man’s head. He dodged to the side, and the bag crashed into the mirror, smashing it.
The man got even more upset. Now they would have to pay to fix that as well, but the woman remained frozen, staring at it. The man turned around and froze as well.
A video camera was hiding behind the mirror, pointed directly at them.
ABOUT
A love hotel is a short-stay hotel where you can stay for either the night or just a few hours. As the name implies, they’re generally used for people discreetly looking to have a little fun in private. At many love hotels, you never come into contact with a single person. You buy your ticket to get in anonymously, you can order food and drinks which are left outside your door, and when time is up, you leave. They are the ultimate in privacy for a country where millions live on top of each other, generations share the same house, and alone time seems like a distant dream.
Love hotels are also a big business. A CNN report in 2009 revealed the industry brought in over $40 billion a year, more than twice that of the anime industry. Considering privacy is one of the biggest draws of love hotels, it sure would be devastating if customers discovered they were secretly being filmed inside their walls…
This legend has been around for a while now, and in 2016, a former love hotel employee addressed it directly. In an interview with RocketNews24, the man claimed that during his entire working history at love hotels he had never once seen a hidden camera… At least, from the management’s side.
Hidden cameras are not only a crime, they’re bad for business. If anyone so much as mentions in passing that a certain hotel has hidden cameras, customers will avoid it like the plague. The risk of potentially filming customers and selling the footage is far greater than the rewards. Love hotels are already profitable enough as it is, and something like a hidden camera would instantly put a hotel out o
f business.
Is there the potential that another customer has bought their own camera and installed it inside a room? Of course there’s a chance, but again, it’s unlikely. They’d need to hide it well enough that no-one would find it, especially the cleaning staff, and they would need to return constantly to pick up the camera and/or footage. Staff clean the same rooms up to six times a day and are very familiar with the surroundings. If anything was out of place, they would notice it. Thus, while it’s not impossible, it is highly unlikely.
Another variation on this legend claims that a couple who discovered a hidden camera in a love hotel complained to the owners about it and were quietly paid off to the tune of 3 million yen. Similar legends exist in various service industries, such as burgers that aren’t made entirely of meat, and so forth. In this particular case, nobody has ever come out on the record to say they were paid off (and why would they?), but for the same reasons as above, it’s unlikely. There’s far more money to be made running the business legitimately.
Manhole Thieves
Theft and bag snatching have been on the rise in busy areas like Shibuya and Ikebukuro lately, and it’s often attributed to young thieves. However, the number of arrests made for these crimes is relatively low.
The reason for this is because the young thieves are escaping through manholes in the city. In this way they are able to disappear and avoid capture.
ABOUT
Delving into the topic of Tokyo’s massive underground tunnel network could take up an entire book of its own (and in Japan there are books dedicated solely to the topic), but setting that aside, this legend specifically refers to manholes. This legend wouldn’t work for other areas of Japan because most sewers are too small for anyone to escape through; even a large city like Osaka has pipes that are only large enough to crawl or crouch through. Tokyo is the biggest city in the world though, so of course it has massive sewers lying just under the surface that people could escape through if necessary, right?
It’s a scene not uncommon in movies and manga. The thieves disappear from sight by dropping into a manhole and make their grand getaway through Tokyo’s massive underground pipe system, emerging somewhere far from the scene of the crime in complete safety. But is it true? Can people really escape through Tokyo’s manholes?
The answer is “probably not.” Manholes don’t just lead to big empty pipes that allow people free access underneath the city. They lead to sewers. Full of sewerage. That means they are literally full of water, urine, feces, and all the lovely smells that come with such a combination packed into tunnels and left to stagnate.
Sewer pipes beneath Tokyo vary in length and size. In some areas you can even take a tour if you’re brave enough. As you might expect, they smell awful and many leave promising never to go back again. They’re full of insects feasting on the filth and to get anywhere you need to make your way through both them and the sludge, leaving you emerging on the other side (if you make it that far) looking and smelling like you literally just crawled through a sewer. Because you did. Not to mention the mere act of getting a manhole open in a city as busy as Shibuya and not have anyone see you is near impossible.
It works well in film, like many other things, but in reality, escaping from police through Tokyo’s sewer system is a no-go. You would have an easier time simply disappearing into the massive crowds, and smell better for it at the end as well.
Accident Scammer Fax
A group of scammers is here. Please take note.
1. If you are involved in an accident with any of the number plates below, do not settle at the scene. Call the police right away.
2. Do not give them your name, phone number, address, or company details before the police arrive.
3. Please keep a copy of this in your car.
4. Make sure to inform your family and friends.
< Number plates to be aware of >
Yamaguchi xx-xxxx
Yamaguchi xx-xxxx
Yamaguchi xx-xxxx
If you see a car driving in front of you with any of these number plates, please make sure to drive at a safe distance so if they suddenly brake, you will not hit them. If you discover a car behind you suddenly approaching erratically, take extreme caution. They stop using their parking brake, so you will not see their brake lights!
Our company received this fax. It seems another group of scammers is around. This group causes car accidents on purpose and tries to force settlements on the spot. They operate in pairs. One car in front, one in back. The car in front suddenly brakes, causing the mark to do the same, but with no time to stop, the cars will inevitably hit each other. Then the car from behind will crash as well, meaning the mark has to pay out twice as much damage. This can end up in the tens of thousands. Make sure to be extremely careful when you’re driving.
ABOUT
This legend first started making waves in the late 1980s when faxes resembling the above circulated through various neighbourhoods and companies. Depending on the area it was being shared in, number plates varied from Yamaguchi to Osaka to Shinagawa, or other such places that had a strong yakuza image. The majority of places were from western Japan, where the media repeatedly denied that any such groups existed, but in eastern Japan, the rumours were allowed to spread, and many believed them to be true. The list of number plates on the fax grew over the years, and by the end of the 90s had well over 35 cars on it.
As the fax was copied over and over, this slowly produced errors and made the original fax difficult to read. In 1998 and 1999, number plates also began to change from two-digit numbers to three-digit numbers, making the lists even more difficult to believe.
Police began investigating the fax shortly after it was first released, and continued to do so each time new number plates were added. The faxes were especially common amongst taxi drivers, car dealers, and other people specialising in cars; the people who were most likely to be affected by scammers on the road. The number plates on the list largely turned out to be abandoned cars, or cars that didn’t exist at all. Police warned people not to be fooled, and that no such group of scammers existed, but the fax continued to circulate, regardless. However, while the number plates on the faxes were mostly dead cars, and there was no such group of scammers, this urban legend was inspired by a real-life incident.
ORIGINS
In August 1986, rumours began to spread throughout Hyogo Prefecture that yakuza members were scamming people. Over in neighbouring Kyoto, two months later, a leaflet began circulating featuring the number plates of three known yakuza members. Newspapers at the time connected the two events, and rumours began to spread that the yakuza on the list were involved in scamming people. The police investigated both the cars and members involved, but were unable to find any proof that they had been partaking in scams. By November, a leaflet was being passed around Yamaguchi that featured 19 different number plates, of which several were known yakuza members. The police once more investigated and discovered that the person who created the leaflet was having trouble with certain yakuza members, and so he wanted to extract revenge on them. This didn’t stop distribution of the leaflets, however. On the contrary, they continued to spread, with more and more number plates added, the rumour continuing to spread further across the country each time.
The spreading of rumours pre-internet took much longer, but by the 1990s the faxes had been shared around much of Western Japan. Because the majority of the number plates were said to be from Yamaguchi Prefecture, the Yamaguchi Police took over investigations. They concluded that the faxes were the work of a yukaihan, a criminal who takes joy in seeing people’s reactions to his crimes. The only scamming taking place was that of people who believed the fax to be true.
Still, by 2008, over 20 years after the rumours first began, faxes were still circulating with number plates and warnings to keep an eye out for these scammers on the roads. Some people even believed that the police themselves were circulating the fax so they could warn people of the dang
ers lurking on the roads, while other suggested it was a government test to see how and where news would spread. The police denied they were spreading anything, of course, but the rumours just wouldn’t die.
AT PRESENT
If you can believe it, this fax is still being sent around the country, well over 30 years after it first began. The list, seen as recently as February 2019, still includes number plates from Yamaguchi, Osaka, Kobe, and Hyogo Prefectures, all neatly typed out on a computer so they’re easy to read. Some even include incomplete numbers or unknown locations to add a little “authenticity” to the lie.
With the proliferation of social media and ease of sharing content, as well as an entirely new generation that potentially haven’t yet heard of the original legend, this fake scammer group is a tough one to kill. Of course, the pictures of the fax generally come with a call to action as well, asking people to share so as many eyes get on it as possible. Now that sharing is as simple as the click of a button, it seems almost impossible to stop its spread.
As a sign of the changing times, some have even suggested that people get dashboard cams so they can protect themselves against these scammers. After all, without proof it’s your word against theirs. A dashboard cam is certainly not an awful idea, but it’s a bit silly for something that a few seconds of research could tell you isn’t true.
Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends: Volume Two Page 16