Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast episode 573, The Revolutionary Part 8.

At the height of the early months of the so-called Glickokorinaga affair, when a mysterious person or group of people calling himself or themselves, the monster with 21 faces, took it upon themselves to blackmail a series of

Japan's biggest food companies.

The police identified a suspicious-looking man.

The first time they saw him was on June 28, 1984, when one of the companies being targeted

by the group, Marudai, agreed to a 50 million yen

payoff to stop the blackmail and threats.

Just for reference, in 1984, that'd be a little over $210,000, today $659,000.

Not chump change, but not huge money either.

Certainly a small enough sum that most companies

would prefer to pay it instead of risking a lawsuit caused by a saboteur swapping their products

on store shelves for ones containing poison or something along those lines.

Maru Dai was directed by the monster with 21 faces to send an employee with the money in a

briefcase on the local train running between Olsaka and Kyoto.

And when said employee saw a white signal flag at a predetermined spot on the route,

they were to throw the briefcase out the window, prismably to be collected later.

When Maru Dai leadership told the police about this, the cops sent an undercover investigator

disguised as a Marudai employee to ride the appointed train, obviously hoping to catch the

perpetrators as they went for the money.

Now, the signal flag never appeared.

The money never got handed over, presumably either the

appointed pickup person got spooked or the whole thing was never intended to happen, possibly

...