Jingun Shoyama

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Nagasaki Prefecture (POLICE)

Missing From:

Sasebo, Nagasaki

Summary:

Jingun Shoyama disappeared on February 22, 1969 in Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan in an unresolved case with many mysteries. The 16-year-old went out around 2 p.m. in his school uniform and hat and did not return home. The next day a letter arrived from him that appeared to be written under pressure, claiming he had stolen money, but the letter's style suggested it was written forcibly and contained suspicious words he did not normally use.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

On February 22, 1969, around 2 p.m., Jingun Shoyama went out in his school uniform and hat, saying 'I'm going to go out to town for a bit'. Four hours later, around 6 p.m., an unidentified man came to Shoyama's house and brought his hat, saying 'I was robbed of money by a student wearing a hat,' and Shoyama-kun did not return home. The next day, on the afternoon of the 23rd, a letter arrived from Mr. Shoyama, seemingly written under someone's pressure in his father's name. According to the man's account, around 3 p.m. he saw two students trying to pull up a motorcycle whose wheel had fallen into a ditch, took off his jumper to help them, but one of them ran away holding the jumper which contained a wallet with 460,000 yen, and the middle school student next to him tried to chase him but eventually lost, catching only the hat.

Additional Details:

The word 'strategy' written in the letter was a word that Shoyama did not use, giving rise to suspicions that it was written forcibly, and the Chinese characters of his name were written incorrectly. Police thought it was a kidnapping and murder and searched all the mountains the next day, but found no clues; they interrogated the man intensely and even used a lie detector test, but found no clues. Investigators testified that the 'pickpocketing incident' described by the man did not exist at all. Police began investigating for a long time, but without much success, and the case was gradually forgotten. After quite some time, the man who came to the house with Shoyama's hat was visited by media covering the incident; he had become the father of two sons and was traveling around various places while driving a dump truck. Shoyama's parents moved to Saga Prefecture just one year after the incident; according to what was revealed in November 2021, the move at that time appears to have been to take care of his older sister, who suffered brain damage from heat stroke.

Case Last Updated:

Jul 07, 2026