Episode 47: Teikoku Bank Affair

Black Torii — Japanese True Crime · Aug 18, 2026 · 14m

January 26, 1948. A well-dressed man steps into a bank branch in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, shortly after the bank has closed to the public. He says he's a government health official. He says a dysentery outbreak is moving through the neighborhood, and everyone in the room — every single employee — needs to take preventive medicine immediately. Sixteen people comply. Twelve of them are dead within the hour. The man takes the cash from the vault, folds it into his coat, and walks out the door. What follows is one of the most contested criminal cases in Japanese history — a case where the official…