Episode 48: Shimoyama Incident

Black Torii — Japanese True Crime · Aug 19, 2026 · 14m

July 5th, 1949. Sadanori Shimoyama, the most powerful railroad man in Japan, stepped out of his company limousine in central Tokyo. He was going to buy his wife a birthday present at the Mitsukoshi department store — one of the most famous shops in the country. He walked through the door. He never came out. Twelve hours later, just after midnight, his body was found on the tracks of the Joban Line in northern Tokyo — severed, mangled, destroyed by a passing train. But here is the detail that turns a tragedy into a mystery: when investigators examined the scene, there was almost no blood. Not…