Monster with 21 Faces Glico-Morinaga Case
Osaka’s 1984 confectionery panic began when Ezaki Glico president Katsuhisa Ezaki was dragged from his home by armed men, then widened into a taunting campaign of ransom notes, arson, fake and real poison threats, and cyanide-laced Morinaga candy left on store shelves under the name “Monster with 21 Faces.” Police hunted the elusive “Fox-Eyed Man” through train stations, pay phones, and botched money drops, but the trail dissolved before the statutes of limitation expired, leaving Japan with a case where the criminals seemed less interested in profit than in proving they could make a nation afraid to buy sweets.
In the spring of 1984, one of Japan's most unusual postwar crime stories began inside the private home of a food-company president. Katsuhisa Ezaki, president of Ezaki Glico, was abducted from his residence in Nishinomiya after armed intruders entered the family property. The kidnappers demanded an enormous ransom in cash and gold, but the case did not follow the normal shape of a kidnapping. Ezaki escaped from captivity after several days, and the offenders soon shifted into a broader campaign of threats, staged clues, arson, ransom instructions, and letters sent to companies, police, and newsrooms.
The name that came to define the affair was kaijin nijūichi mensō, usually translated as the Monster with 21 Faces, the Mystery Man with 21 Faces, or a similar variation. The alias evoked the fictional master criminal created by Edogawa Rampo, but the real case was not fiction. It unfolded across the Kansai region and later reached other parts of Japan, involving Glico, Morinaga, Marudai Ham, House Foods, Fujiya, and other food-related companies. The criminals used the press as a stage, sending communications that mocked investigators, announced threats, and turned corporate extortion into a national public-safety crisis.
The investigation became especially alarming when the threats moved from corporate ransom to poisoned food. The National Police Agency's 1985 white paper describes the case as escalating after the offenders expanded their targets to dozens of companies, with Morinaga products containing sodium cyanide placed in supermarkets and other stores. Later official retrospectives described the case as a wide-area crime that included kidnapping for ransom, threats to major food companies, and attempted murder through cyanide-contaminated confectionery. The poisoned products were reportedly labeled with warnings and were recovered before consumers were killed, but the psychological effect was severe. Parents feared supermarket sweets, companies pulled products, and the case became a national symbol of crime conducted through mass media.
The police appeared to come close to the offenders more than once. A man later called the Fox-Eyed Man was seen during covert ransom-drop operations and became one of the most famous unidentified figures in Japanese criminal history. A composite sketch was released, and several suspects or possible motive theories were investigated over the years, including insider grudges, organized-crime involvement, ideological groups, and copycat opportunists. None led to a conviction. One of the darker turns came in August 1985, when former Shiga Prefectural Police chief Shoji Yamamoto died by self-immolation, widely reported in connection with the pressure and perceived failure of the investigation. Days later, the Monster with 21 Faces sent a final message and disappeared from public view.
The case remains unresolved in the practical historical sense even though criminal prosecution deadlines have passed. Official Japanese police histories record it as Police Agency Wide-Area Important Designated Case No. 114 and note that all related statutes of limitation had expired by February 2000. What remains is a thoroughly documented but legally closed mystery: a kidnapping victim who survived, poisoned goods that were intercepted, a suspect image that became iconic, and a criminal identity that was never proven.