The Glico Morinaga case ( グリコ・森永事件 , Guriko, Morinaga jiken ) , also called Metropolitan Designated Case 114 ( 警察庁広域重要指定第114号事件 , Keisatsuchō kōiki jūyō shitei dai-hyakujūyongō jiken ) , was a well-known crime in Japan from 1984 to 1985. It involved threats against two companies that make candy and other treats: Ezaki Glico and Morinaga. The case lasted for 17 months, starting with the capture of the president of Glico and ending with the last message from the main suspect, a person or group known only as "The Monster with 21 Faces." The case has never been solved.
Kidnapping
On March 18, 1984, at about 9:00 p.m., two men wearing masks and carrying a gun and a rifle entered the home of Katsuhisa Ezaki, who was the president of Ezaki Glico. The home next door belonged to Katsuhisa’s 70-year-old mother, Yoshie. Both homes were on the same property. The criminals entered Yoshie’s home first and asked for the key to her son’s home.
They then entered Katsuhisa’s home and tied up his wife, Mikieko (35 years old), and his oldest daughter, Mariko (8 years old). They locked them in the bathroom. The other two children, daughter Yukiko (4 years old) and son Etsuro (11 years old), were sleeping in another room and were not harmed. The men found Katsuhisa, who was taking a bath, and took him from his home while he was still naked. Katsuhisa was taken to a small warehouse in Ibaraki, Osaka.
At about midnight, the kidnappers told a company director to find a ransom note in a public phone booth. The note asked for 1 billion yen (about $4.5 million at that time) and 100 kilograms of gold bullion. However, three days later, on March 21, Katsuhisa escaped from the warehouse.
Glico blackmailing
This is a letter sent by a group called "The Monster with 21 Faces" that was received on April 8, 1984:
The threats against Glico did not stop after Ezaki escaped. On April 10, cars in the parking lot of the Ezaki Glico headquarters' trial production building were set on fire. Then, on April 16, a plastic container filled with hydrochloric acid and a threatening letter to Glico were found in Ibaraki.
On May 10, Glico started receiving letters from a person or group that called itself "The Monster with 21 Faces" (かい人21面相, kaijin nijūichi mensō). This name comes from a villain in a detective story by Edogawa Rampo and is also called "The Fiend with the Twenty Faces" or "The Phantom with 20 Faces." The Monster claimed to have added potassium cyanide soda to Glico candies. When Glico removed its products from stores, it cost over $21 million and caused 450 part-time workers to lose their jobs. The Monster then threatened to place the tampered products in stores. After this, a man wearing a Yomiuri Giants baseball cap was seen putting Glico chocolate on a store shelf by a security camera. A photo from the security camera was later shown to the public.
At the same time, "The Monster with 21 Faces" sent letters to the media, mocking the police for not catching the person or group responsible. One such letter, written in hiragana and using an Osaka dialect, read:
This is a letter sent by "The Monster with 21 Faces" that was received on April 23, 1984. It was sent to Sankei and Mainichi newspapers, as well as the Koshien police station. It read:
Eventually, the Monster stopped contacting Glico and, on June 26, sent a letter saying, "We Forgive Glico!" However, the Monster then began targeting other companies, including Morinaga, Marudai Ham, and House Foods Corporation.
Morinaga blackmailing
On November 1, 1984, a threatening letter was delivered to the home of Mitsuo Yamada, vice president of Morinaga Dairy in Tokyo. This letter was one of many threatening and harassing messages sent by a criminal group known as "Monster with 21 Faces" to several Japanese food companies.
On November 6, 1984, Morinaga Dairy responded by placing a missing persons advertisement in the Mainichi Newspapers Morning Edition.
On November 7, 1984, two letters were sent to House Foods. On the same day, Morinaga & Company, whose food products had been poisoned by the criminal group, had to reduce its production by 90% for a short time.
Fox-Eyed Man
On June 28, two days after agreeing to stop harassing Marudai in exchange for 50 million yen (about US$210,000), the "Monster" arranged for a Marudai employee to throw the ransom money onto a local train heading toward Kyoto when a white flag was shown. An investigator dressed as a Marudai employee followed the "Monster's" instructions and noticed a suspicious man watching him while riding the train to the drop location. The man was described as tall and strong, wearing sunglasses, with short, permed hair and fox-like eyes.
When the white flag was not displayed, the undercover investigator and the "Fox-Eyed Man" (キツネ目の男, kitsune-me no otoko) both got off the train at Kyoto station. The investigator sat on a bench while the "Fox-Eyed Man" continued watching him. Later, the investigator returned to Osaka, and the "Fox-Eyed Man" got on another train car. When the investigator left the train at Takatsuki station, the "Fox-Eyed Man" boarded a Kyoto-bound train. Another undercover investigator followed him from Kyoto, but the "Fox-Eyed Man" eventually escaped.
Shiga Prefecture incident
On November 14, police had another opportunity to catch the "Fox-Eyed Man" when the "Monster" group tried to rob House Food Corporation of 100 million yen (about US$410,000) during a secret deal. At a rest stop on the Meishin Expressway near Otsu, investigators saw the Fox-Eyed Man wearing a golf cap and dark glasses. However, he avoided being caught. The cash delivery van being followed continued toward the drop point, where the money was to be placed in a can under a white cloth. When the van arrived, the white cloth was there, but the can was missing. Because of this, the police team was ordered to stop their search, believing the drop was a test of how the police would respond.
Earlier that day, a patrol car from Shiga Prefecture Police saw a station wagon with its engine running and headlights off, parked less than 50 meters from a white cloth hanging from a fence. The officer, unaware of the secret drop, approached the car and shone a flashlight on the driver. The driver was a thin man in his forties wearing a golf cap over his eyes and a wireless receiver with headphones. Surprised, the driver sped away, and the police car chased him until the station wagon disappeared.
The station wagon was later found abandoned near Kusatsu Station. It had been stolen earlier in Nagaokakyo, Kyoto Prefecture. Inside the car, police found a radio transceiver that had been listening to police communications between six prefectures, including Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. A vacuum cleaner was also found, but no evidence linked it to the "Monster" group.
After the blackmail campaign against House Foods, the "Monster" targeted Fujiya in December 1984. In January 1985, police shared a facial composite of the "Fox-Eyed Man" with the public. In August 1985, after continued harassment by the "Monster with 21 Faces" and the failure to capture the "Fox-Eyed Man," Shiga Prefecture Police Superintendent Yamamoto committed suicide by self-immolation.
Final message and aftermath
Five days after Yamamoto's death on August 12, the "Monster with 21 Faces" sent a final message to the news:
After this message, the Monster with 21 Faces was no longer heard from. In March 1994, the time limit for legal action ended for the kidnapping of Ezaki. Later, the time limits for the two remaining charges of attempted murder related to poisoned food items also ended in October 1999 and on Saturday, February 12, 2000.
Prime suspects
In January 1985, after a sketch of the suspect was released, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police said the person responsible was Manabu Miyazaki. He was called Mr. "M" or Material Witness "M." Miyazaki was believed to have made a tape in 1976 supporting a local union during a labor dispute with Glico. This tape had similarities to messages from the "Monster with 21 Faces." Between 1975 and 1976, Miyazaki reported several incidents involving Glico, including the company pouring starch and other industrial waste into local rivers and drainage systems. He was also linked to the resignation of a union leader after accounting problems arose when Glico Ham and Glico Nutritional Foods merged. Additionally, Miyazaki’s father was the leader of a local yakuza group, and Miyazaki looked very similar to the "Fox-Eyed Man." For months, people guessed Miyazaki was the "Fox-Eyed Man," but the Tokyo Metropolitan Police checked his alibis and found no evidence of his involvement. Because of this, Miyazaki became a public speaker and wrote a book titled Toppamono about his experiences.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police also believed that some yakuza groups may have been involved in the Glico-Morinaga case. The end of the blackmail campaign happened around the same time as the Yama-ichi war, a violent conflict between the Yamaguchi-gumi and Ichiwa-kai gangs. Additionally, the Japanese National Public Safety Commission investigated extreme left-wing and right-wing groups as possible suspects.
In popular culture
Kaoru Takamura's 1997 novel Lady Joker (translated in 2021) was inspired by the case.
In 2002, the character of the Laughing Man in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex was inspired by the Glico-Morinaga case.
In 2016, Kodansha published a suspense novel titled Tsumi no Koe (The Voice of Sin) by Takeshi Shiota. The novel used the Glico Morinaga Case as its setting. The book was later adapted into a 2020 movie featuring actors Shun Oguri and Gen Hoshino.
In 2021, BuzzFeed Unsolved covered the case, presenting several theories.