July 16, 2007
Japan's yen santa strikes againCase of mystery person who leaves stacks of 10,000 yen notes in public toilets makes it to top news item in Japan
By Kwan Weng Kin
TOKYO - JAPAN is abuzz over the mystery of 10,000 yen (S$124) notes being left in public toilets around the country.
The identity of the enigmatic benefactor has become the top news item on Japanese television networks, beating out murders, accidents and even news of the upcoming Upper House elections.
Most observers believe the person behind the cash-in-the-loo is likely to be a man, someone in his 60s, if not 70s, with a secret desire to do good.
To fulfil this, he has been mysteriously leaving notes wrapped in traditional Japanese paper in the toilets of municipal offices around Japan over the past few months.
Reports say that since a pile of these 10,000 yen notes appeared in Sendai city, north of Tokyo, in April, similar piles have popped up with some regularity at some 50 locations in 19 prefectures, from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south, over the past few months.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government said it made a similar find on June 14 in one of its toilets, as did the nearby Shinjuku Ward Office.
The amount of money ranges from 60,000 yen to 100,000 yen each time and they are invariably left on days marked 'auspicious' in the traditional Japanese calendar.
Governor Hideo Higashikokubaru of Miyazaki Prefecture, where a stack of notes was found in a municipal office toilet late last month, quipped: 'I wish whoever it is would come forward and make a donation rather than scatter the money this way.'
Evidence so far points to one individual working alone.
The 10,000 yen notes first made their appearance in July last year in the men's toilet of a cemetery in Himeji city, Hyogo Prefecture, in western Japan. In September, they surfaced in another cemetery in Shizuoka city, central Japan.
But since this April, the baffling benefactor has preferred to leave his cash in the men's toilets of public buildings.
The money is also always placed near the sink where it can be easily spotted.
Each note is wrapped in a sheet of white paper carrying handwritten words that read 'Offering - one person per envelope'.
Each note also comes with a one-page letter neatly written with a brush- pen.
'Please use this money to learn something for your own self-enrichment,' it entreats the finder.
The networks trotted out handwriting experts who confirmed that all the letters were the work of one and the same person and that the choice of words suggests that the letter-writer is a retiree in his 60s or 70s, at any rate someone who is wealthy enough to travel around the country.
The experts also suggested, looking at the brush strokes, that he was a fastidious and very careful person.
But the man's obsession with toilets in municipal offices remains puzzling.
One theory put forward is that he is using the money as an encouragement to government officials not to lose heart, since the bureaucracy is the frequent target of criticism these days.
Another theory says the man could be a thrill-seeker, who revels in the fact that his actions have got the nation all agog.
So far, the money left by him and handed over to the police has amounted to over 4.5 million yen, the astonishing figure itself a testimony to the honesty of the Japanese.
By law, the money found is kept by the police for six months in case someone comes forward to claim it.
After that, it becomes the property of the finder.
But many government offices say they may use the money for miscellaneous expenditure.
Similar cases involving the anonymous distribution of cash have occurred in the past.
In what was dubbed the 'strange Santa Claus affair', homes in a Tokyo residential district found their mailboxes stuffed with bundles of 1,000 yen notes from late 1964 to early 1965.
wengkin@sph.com.sg
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