Sanokuen Jiken (2014)

Sanokuen Jiken 2014 / 三億円事件 2014 / San Oku En Jiken

At midnight on 10 December 1975, the statute of limitation for the audacious 300 million yen heist in 1968, the greatest unsolved case of Japan’s post-war era, expired. 120,000 investigators and approximately 900 million yen were spent on the investigation. In truth, the 300 million yen that was stolen had been insured. Two-thirds of it was paid by an American insurance company, but few Japanese knew about this at the time. In 1976, a Japanese was sent from New York. He is Takeda Hideya of ENY Fire & Marine Insurance, a leading American insurance companies. Frustrated by a Japan that had become hardly recognisable after its defeat in World War II, he abandoned the country, left his mother Yoshiko behind, and went to America alone. Takeda, who has solved successive insurance cases in America, is back in Japan for the first time since he left. His objectives are to get to the bottom of the 300 million yen heist that even the Japanese police have not been able to do and make the criminal(s) pay $500,000 in compensation. Another is his innermost desire to see his mother again for the first time in 25 years... Takeda gains the cooperation of Nakaoka Ryoko and Takahara Kaoru, who are local investigators, for a research company in Japan and makes steady progress in the investigation. After the heist, Hamano Kenji, a member of a group of delinquents called the Kaminari, emerged as a suspect. But Hiranuma Kaname, the veteran detective in charge of the case at the time, asserted that the criminal acted alone and rejected the current theory of multiple criminals. Takeda is about to get close to the truth through various information, but the Japanese police give this Japanese who has come from America the cold shoulder. Despite coming up against this obstacle, Takeda sees new evidence. ~~ Adapted from the novel ‟Sanoku-yen Jiken‟ by Matsumoto Seichou.