TOKYO (TR) — On this day forty-six years ago, a shocking discovery on a street in the ritzy Ginza quarter sparked a nationwide frenzy when a truck driver stumbled upon 100 million yen in cash abandoned on a street — a case that remains unsolved.
On the evening of April 25, 1980, 42-year-old truck driver Hisao Onuki was driving along Showa-dori in Ginza 3-chome when he spotted a furoshiki (traditional wrapping cloth) bundle resting on a guardrail. Seeing newspaper sticking out from the edges, Onuki assumed it was merely waste paper.
“I thought I’d just put it out for the neighborhood association’s recycling,” Onuki later recalled, tossing the bundle into the bed of his truck.
It wasn’t until he returned home that the staggering truth was revealed. Upon opening the bundle, his wife was left dumbfounded—wrapped inside were 10 neat stacks of 10 million yen each, totaling a massive 100 million yen in cash. At the time, the top prize for the year-end Jumbo Lottery was just 30 million yen, making the abandoned fortune more than three times that amount.
Onuki immediately reported the find to the police. However, the next day, his real name was broadcast across the media, turning him into an overnight sensation and placing him at the center of a dangerous media circus.
Speculation ran wild nationwide. The press relentlessly theorized that the massive sum was tied to underworld stock manipulation or illicit political slush funds.
The intense spotlight brought severe repercussions for Onuki. He was bombarded with up to 100 prank and threatening phone calls a day. Callers harassed the driver, warning him, “You’re going to be killed,” and screaming, “How dare you take my money!”
Under the law at the time, if the owner of a lost item did not claim it within six months, full ownership transferred to the finder (the period has since been reduced to three months). As the nation watched with bated breath, the deadline passed without a single credible person stepping forward to claim the mysterious fortune.
When Onuki finally went to collect the cash—pocketing around 66 million yen after taxes—he reportedly wore a bulletproof vest out of fear for his life.
Despite the sudden windfall, Onuki maintained a modest and steadfast lifestyle. He famously reflected later that he would only know if the 100 million yen had truly brought him happiness at the very end of his life.
An unidentified politician told the Sankei Shimbun that the cash was part of a stock market investment he had made. He added that, because of income tax fears, he would not claim ownership.
To this day, the identity of the original owner remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Showa Era (1926-1989).
The unprecedented incident left a lasting cultural mark, unofficially cementing April 25 as “Lost Property Day” in Japan.
