The 300 Million Yen Case
In three minutes a fake policeman drove off with a fortune, and fifty-odd years later no one has ever answered for it.
Briefing
On the morning of 10 December 1968, a man dressed as a Tokyo police motorcyclist stopped a bank cash car in Fuchu carrying factory bonus money. He told the four employees inside that a bomb had been planted under the car, then threw out a burning flare and drove off with the vehicle while they fled. Police built a list of roughly 110,000 possible suspects and spent years and enormous manpower on the case. The legal clock kept running the whole time.
What became of the robber and the 300 million yen?
Evidence board
- E110 Dec 1968, Fuchu
The Flare Trick
A man dressed as a police motorcyclist told four bank employees a bomb was under their car, then threw out a burning flare and drove off with the cash car while they fled.
Source: MoneyWeek - E2Scene, 10 Dec 1968
A Stolen White Motorcycle
The white motorcycle left at the scene was not a real police machine at all; it was a stolen civilian motorcycle painted white.
Source: Jiji Press - E3Shukan Shincho, 1975
Detective Doubts The Montage
The celebrated detective who pursued the robber wrote in a 1975 memoir that the famous police montage did not look like the robber.
Source: Daily Shincho - E4TV Tokyo, 2021
A photo of a dead man?
On TV Tokyo in 2021, a journalist said the famous montage was really a photograph of a man who had died a year and a half before the robbery; police have not confirmed this in any source checked.
Source: TV Tokyo - E51968 to 1975
Sealed. Question a witness to open it.
- E6JFBA statement, 20 Dec 1969
Sealed. Question a witness to open it.
- E71975 and 1988
Every Deadline Passed
The seven-year statute of limitations for prosecuting the robbery expired on 10 December 1975 with the robber unidentified, and civil liability for the theft lapsed in 1988.
Source: Rakuten Securities (Toushiru) - E8Daily Shincho, 2025
Self-Proclaimed Robbers
Over the years people have come forward claiming to be the robber, but none of those claims has solved the case.
Source: Daily Shincho
Witnesses
Retired Tokyo Metropolitan Police Investigator (composite)
Composite characterCase investigator
I spent years chasing leads on the 300 million yen robbery before the trail went cold.
Local Reporter Who Covered The Case (composite)
Composite characterPress witness
I covered the robbery and the theories around it from the press side for decades.