0:02

Gambsite media. There

0:06

is a jingle for pretty much everything in

0:08

Japan. From electronic stores

0:14

to giant discount stores. And

0:19

curry brands. I

0:23

have hundreds of Jingles living rent

0:25

free in my head. They're just so catchy

0:27

and impossible to escape. Sometimes

0:30

I'll hear over a dozen a day just riding

0:32

the train because every station

0:34

in Tokyo has its own special jingle.

0:37

We live in a nation that loves mascots

0:39

and jingles. So when we applied at

0:41

Sakura Sachiko detective school, and

0:44

actually got in, we shouldn't

0:46

have been surprised per se that they

0:48

sent us a CD of their jingle along

0:50

with other introductory materials. But

0:52

I was surprised delightfully so.

0:55

It also had the lyrics written out.

1:04

And here's the best part. We found

1:06

out that the Jingle is on karaoke. And

1:09

there's a music video for it. The

1:11

latest Sakura Sachiko,

1:13

a glamorous middle aged lady in a

1:15

sequined hot pink jacket. She's

1:18

dancing one moment, then lurking behind

1:20

an unsuspecting cheating couple in the

1:22

next. This is one of those moments when

1:24

a podcast can't quite capture the campy

1:26

magic. Background

1:32

checks, miss Condell, corporate investigation, accidentals,

1:34

surveillance.

1:37

These are just some of the cases detected agencies

1:40

get called in

1:40

for. After we found out Morning

1:43

Motors on sugar daddy sites, We actually

1:45

made some accounts to try and find him,

1:47

but we got no

1:48

bites, so we decided to be little more

1:50

proactive about things.

1:54

What if we learned how to track people from

1:56

actual pro's at detective school?

1:59

And after hearing the jingle, I was sold.

2:01

This was school for us. It was

2:04

a very rigorous process. I had

2:06

an image of a detective agency, something very

2:08

film noir, smoky rooms,

2:10

trench coats, gruff, troubled men.

2:13

But Sachiko is none of that.

2:15

It's more like visiting an apartment store, an

2:17

advertising agency. Everyone is

2:19

clean, cut, well dressed, and polite.

2:22

And yet, Sakura Sachiko is one

2:24

of the biggest detective agencies and

2:26

schools in Japan. They're known for

2:28

cracking cases that no one else can.

2:31

Especially missing persons cases. Getting

2:33

to detective school was going to require some

2:36

traveling. All the way to Hokkaido,

2:38

the northern most island in Japan.

2:40

It's mostly rural and is famous for

2:42

ski resorts, hot springs, lavender

2:44

fields. There is even one hot

2:46

Spring famous for the gang of seventy two

2:48

monkeys who love to bathe there, but

2:51

that's not where we're going. We're

2:53

going to Hokkaido's largest city.

2:56

It's called Sapporo, like the beer,

2:58

and it's known for being covered in snow

3:00

six months out of the year. None

3:03

of us had ever been to Hokkaido before. And

3:05

by us, I mean myself, Chokul and

3:07

Tishanka, our producer.

3:08

How cool does that mean I can be a detective?

3:11

She has a your goal in mind.

3:14

I

3:14

wanna be the first foreign detective in Japan.

3:16

You can't be the first foreign to Japan. No,

3:18

Tashanka. I'm pretty sure that that's already been taken.

3:21

Oh,

3:21

then I can get the first Sri Lankan detective.

3:23

We

3:23

should look it up. So we fly

3:26

up there to Sapporo to learn from the pros

3:28

and when we reach sacrificed headquarters

3:30

by taxi. One of the

3:32

PIs greeted us in the lobby. We

3:35

recognized him detective Hanzawa.

3:37

The guy we met on our first video call about

3:40

detective school. Detective

3:42

Hanzawa is a baby faced, fit

3:44

guy in his forties. He is cheerful

3:46

and super chatty. He made some small

3:48

talk with us. Like, how was your trip? Did

3:50

you get enough sleep? Then

3:52

he went over the itinerary for the day during

3:55

the elevator ride up to the twelfth floor.

3:58

He

3:58

brought us

3:58

into a room with a giant hardwood desk in a

4:01

black leather seat. There were Sakura

4:03

Sachiko posters all over the

4:04

walls. Detective Hanzawa told

4:06

us to take a look around

4:07

while we waited.

4:08

I'll also be in with you soon. I

4:12

guess I was half expecting herself

4:14

to walk in wearing the sparkly pink suit from the

4:16

music video. Instead, it

4:19

was a middle aged man in a crisp

4:21

pinstripe suit. Detective Yamada

4:23

san. So I had to

4:26

ask. That's

4:28

not exist. She's

4:32

just a makeup character for her

4:34

brand.

4:41

Sockurosachiko may not exist, but

4:44

the detective agency under her name was

4:46

very real, and the private eyes working

4:48

there are some of the best in the business. Former

4:50

cops, ex military, and veteran

4:52

come shoes. And now, we

4:54

were getting ready to follow in their footsteps.

4:59

From campsite and Sony Music

5:01

Entertainment, this

5:04

is gone with the gods, season

5:06

one of the event

5:06

Freighted. I'm Jay catastrophe.

5:09

And I'm Shogo Kanbeck. Episode

5:11

six, Sakura does

5:14

not exist.

5:23

I guess I knew deep down that SAKER SAKER SAKER SAKER SAKO

5:25

wasn't a real person. But I really

5:27

wanted her to be. It would have

5:29

been so cool. The truth

5:31

though, this trim well dressed

5:33

guy, Yamada san. Was the

5:35

wizard behind the curtain.

5:37

I wanted to make this a company

5:40

that women would trust. So

5:42

I decided not to call the company

5:45

something normal like Yamada, the detective

5:47

agency, but by a

5:49

feminine name instead, detective

5:53

agency. I

5:55

asked a professional announcer who

5:57

also happened to be an acquaintance

6:00

of mine to be the Kalakta.

6:03

It's smart marketing. According

6:05

to Yamada san, over half of all clients

6:08

seeking out detective agencies in

6:09

Japan, or

6:10

women. And Yamatisan understands

6:12

this. He's been the CEO of

6:14

Sakura Sachiko for just over ten years

6:16

now, which means that he hasn't worked in the

6:18

field in a

6:19

while. The last time was back

6:21

in two thousand eleven, in the aftermath

6:23

of the massive Fukushima earthquake and

6:25

tsunami, In that disaster, thousands

6:28

died and as many as three thousand

6:30

people went missing. He's a true veteran

6:32

of the industry. And he has

6:34

a surprisingly simple approach to running

6:36

a detective agency.

6:38

Every person had the light to become

6:40

happy. I think detectives

6:42

have an important role protecting

6:44

those who come close to losing

6:46

that right. Okay. We

6:49

can bring back the happiness of a client

6:51

by getting to the to dos. That

6:59

lyric from the jingle says, whatever the truth

7:01

is, I just want to know the truth.

7:03

Yamada's son runs his detective agency

7:06

on this philosophy, but the

7:08

job of a detective is to get to

7:10

the truth. And when it comes to finding

7:12

missing

7:12

people, you need to figure out how

7:14

they disappeared and why.

7:17

We weren't going to detective school

7:19

just to find more immortal. We also wanted

7:21

to learn more about what type of person

7:23

goes missing in

7:23

Japan, and the demographics of the

7:26

modern day evaporated. As

7:28

it turns out, the largest demographic of

7:30

missing people are what you might think

7:32

of as runaways, or as

7:34

we've been talking about them on this show,

7:36

people who intentionally evaporate.

7:39

The next big demographic are elderly

7:41

people with dementia who accidentally go

7:43

missing. In fact, out of the

7:45

eighty thousand people who were reported missing

7:47

every year, over ten thousand

7:49

of them suffer from dementia. In

7:52

two thousand twenty one, it was over

7:54

seventeen thousand six hundred and thirty

7:56

six people, nearly a quarter of the

7:58

total. The rarest

8:00

cases are the ones that involve crime

8:02

or other nefarious circumstances. All

8:05

in all, missing persons cases make

8:07

up about thirty to forty percent of

8:09

the work that Sakura Sachiko takes

8:11

on. It's no coincidence

8:13

that the manual of complete vanishing and

8:15

two of the other manuals for evaporating

8:17

were written by private detectives. Are

8:19

at least overseen by private detective agencies.

8:23

Maybe we should have started here first. We

8:27

had just enough time before our first lesson to

8:29

grab hand coffees from the vending machines.

8:31

Then we were escorted to our classroom, a

8:34

tiny room with the projector black

8:36

swivel chairs, pens with the Sakura

8:38

Sachiko logo on

8:38

it. And

8:39

there was a glass display filled with detective

8:42

gadgets, I glanced at some of the labels on

8:44

the gadgets, wall clock camera,

8:46

electric calculator recorder,

8:49

spectrum analyzer, whatever that is, and

8:51

so on. My favorite were a pair of

8:53

camera glasses. We were

8:55

here for three days. And during

8:57

this time, we had three main instructors.

8:59

You've already

9:03

met Hanzawa san. He's the Jovio guy

9:05

at the top. Turns out,

9:07

he left the self defense forces, that's

9:10

Japan's military, after realizing

9:12

how much he hated being around

9:14

flies and

9:14

insects. It wasn't the risk of being

9:17

shot. It was the bugs.

9:20

Then there was Anizak san. She

9:22

usually works in the client intake room,

9:24

which looks like it's decorated for a tea

9:25

party. Everything in there is in

9:28

various shades of pink and cream with lots

9:30

of lace. Because on his accent

9:32

is so poised and elegant. She looks right

9:34

at home in there. She used to be a

9:36

fashion counselor before becoming a detective.

9:38

And now, she's a counselor for clients at

9:40

Sakura Dasechko. And

9:42

last but not least, there's detective Kudo,

9:45

our primary lecturer. He's

9:48

slender. He wears glasses. And who

9:50

gets really excited about the nerdy

9:52

stuff. He's very partial

9:54

to dense slideshoes. Are

9:57

you okay with kanji? I've

9:59

heard that you are. We're okay. I

10:01

can read and write pretty well. Pungi

10:06

is the hardest of the three writing systems

10:08

in Japan. Jake and I are pretty

10:10

comfortable with it, but this was still some

10:12

pretty advanced stuff. We got our

10:14

notebooks out. I stole a pen. It

10:16

was like being back in college. And

10:18

as we sipped on our vending machine coffees,

10:21

Detective Kudo set up his PowerPoint presentation.

10:24

The first slide had the three commandments

10:26

of detective work. First

10:29

of all, we teach our budding detectives that

10:31

you must not investigate by engaging

10:33

in a legal activity or by

10:35

breaking the law. And we should

10:37

never scare people into talking. This

10:39

could include something like saying we

10:41

are cops or acting like we're

10:43

from a violent

10:43

gang, like the yakuza. The

10:47

second thing we teach is never use

10:50

methods that could ruin someone's reputation.

10:54

Lastly, never behave in

10:56

ways that would betray the trust of

10:58

cooperating parties. This

11:01

is all basically true in journalism too.

11:03

Like don't betray your sources, and that

11:05

should be obvious. Another

11:08

similarity between journalism and detective

11:10

work is how you go about investigative

11:12

interviews. Which is basically getting

11:14

information from people without breaking

11:16

the law. And unlike

11:18

Japanese cops, we are not able

11:20

to arrest someone, lock them up,

11:22

and interrogate them for twenty three days without

11:24

a lawyer present. What we

11:26

do is kind of an art form.

11:27

You need to leverage human psychology to

11:30

your advantage. One easy

11:33

way to do

11:33

this, use a disguise.

11:36

You need to dress right till the

11:38

people are more open to talking

11:39

to you. Kudos

11:40

on mentioned a case that required him to talk to

11:42

some homeless

11:42

people, so

11:43

he didn't wear a suit. He wore a

11:45

scuffed up blue collar uniform.

11:48

But

11:48

looking trustworthy is only half the battle.

11:50

You really have to know how to make people

11:52

talk. Japanese people

11:55

often use the line I wanna

11:57

keep this just between you and me, but

12:00

Don't tell anyone, but is the

12:02

line I've heard a lot in the states too.

12:04

It's like saying, I wouldn't tell just anyone, but

12:06

I feel like I can trust you to keep my

12:08

secret safe. Detectives use this line

12:10

to get people to open up to them all

12:12

the time.

12:14

For example, I would tell Jake a

12:16

secret, like, what my parents are

12:18

like. And now that I've shared my secret with

12:20

Jake, he might feel closer to me, and

12:22

then I try to extract back stories from

12:24

him. So that's why sharing

12:26

secrets is a basic move. This

12:29

sounds kind of manipulative, but as

12:31

long as no one gets hurt, it's fair

12:33

game. And detectives sometimes have

12:35

to do questionable things to get answers so

12:37

that they can help

12:38

people. Take this one case for

12:40

example, where Anizaki san pulled one

12:42

over on the postal service. She

12:46

was working on a missing person's case about a woman

12:48

who ran away from home. The detectives knew

12:50

that the missing lady loved online

12:52

shopping. They were able to find out that she

12:54

recently ordered a package, but they

12:56

didn't know exactly where it was going,

12:58

so they struck up a plan.

13:00

They called the delivery company and claimed it was

13:02

their package and

13:03

asked, can we confirm the delivery

13:06

address? The

13:07

male carrier read us half the address

13:10

and we were about to ask for the street

13:12

address, but then she got

13:14

skeptical. She asked us

13:16

why we didn't know the address we were sending it

13:18

to. So we made up a

13:20

story about how we contact

13:22

the aunt and uncle receiving the package

13:24

to reconfirm the address ourselves.

13:26

She understood and hung up the

13:29

phone. From there, they were

13:31

able to narrow down the area the missing

13:33

woman was in. An his accent

13:35

went there and did a thorough sweep of the whole

13:37

area until finally, they

13:39

found the missing lady in a drugstore.

13:44

Disruption

13:44

is part of the business and you have to

13:47

be fast on your feet. It's

13:49

hard to invent believable little

13:51

lies, and it can be an uncomfortable

13:53

thing to

13:53

do.

13:54

I think the biggest

13:56

difference between detectives and the police

13:58

is this. Detectives work

14:00

for their clients, and the police

14:02

work for the law. This is why

14:04

so many people go to detective

14:06

agencies when they really want to find someone.

14:09

Without compelling evidence that the missing

14:11

person was involved in a criminal case,

14:13

or foul play, police might not have any

14:15

grounds to investigate the disappearance. Detectives

14:19

will strongly encourage you to make a

14:21

missing person's report to the police.

14:23

But police can only file a report from

14:25

a close relative or the legal spouse

14:27

of the missing person.

14:29

There's another sneakier reason police sometimes

14:32

don't take on missing persons cases.

14:35

Sirius cops and detectives at police

14:37

headquarters they hate taking on cases they

14:39

may not be able to solve. This

14:41

is one reason why missing persons cases

14:43

are sometimes very

14:44

misclassified. And other

14:45

times, it's just old fashioned

14:48

Japanese misogyny. Detective

14:50

Kudo had one really disheartening

14:52

story.

14:53

That's after the break.

14:56

On a winter

14:59

night in a small community near Denver,

15:01

Colorado, gym math used

15:03

arrived home late. He expected to find

15:05

his twelve year old daughter who'd been dropped off after

15:07

a Christmas concert. But when he

15:09

called out, hi Janelle, No one answered.

15:12

She was gone. Thirty

15:14

five years later, in two thousand

15:17

nineteen, her body was discovered.

15:19

The police turned their attention two men who

15:21

had told law enforcement years

15:23

ago that he knew something, but

15:25

they dismissed him. The man did seem

15:28

obsessed with the case. But is that all

15:30

he was? A true crime

15:32

fanatic or a killer.

15:35

Wandry and campsite media's hit

15:37

podcast, suspect, is back for

15:39

second season. This time with the

15:41

story that attempts to separate one

15:43

man's true crime obsession from a

15:45

motive for murder. Listen

15:47

to suspect wherever you get your podcast. Prime

15:50

members you can bitch the entire series ad

15:52

free on Amazon Music. Download

15:54

the Amazon Music app today.

15:59

you're craving churches three piece

16:02

dressing, there's no other option. Two crispy

16:04

legs to thigh in a warm honey butter biscuit

16:06

of only wings. And

16:08

that's why we call it a glass. Church

16:10

is Texas chick. Tap the bell to find your

16:12

nearest location, offer valid participating locations.

16:16

Every missing person's case has its own

16:19

unique set of challenges. There's

16:21

one case that really haunts

16:23

detective Kudo.

16:24

This woman went missing in the dead of winter in

16:27

Sapporo. She

16:28

left saying that she was going to hang out with an old friend

16:30

of hers. It was

16:32

snowing very hard. She got

16:34

lost and had called her mother.

16:36

The call got cut off while they were

16:38

talking. And when her daughter didn't make it

16:40

home on time, the mother called the

16:42

police. So the police started to

16:44

investigate. And the first thing they

16:46

did was look into her call

16:47

history. And what they found

16:50

made them decide not to look into

16:52

the

16:52

case. The call

16:56

record showed a gentleman's club that she

16:58

went to. So police

17:00

dismissed the case saying that she was

17:02

probably with some guy.

17:03

Imagine having the value of your life dismissed

17:06

because God forbid, you might have gone

17:08

out with

17:09

someone. There was no actual sign that he had anything

17:11

to do with it, but the police refused

17:13

to consider any other

17:15

option. In the

17:17

end, Kudos on's contract with the

17:19

client expired, and that was the end

17:21

of

17:21

it. We wrote

17:22

up a report and gave it to the mother.

17:25

The result was unfound. That

17:27

was winter. In the spring,

17:28

the snow melted, and a body surfaced

17:31

out of the mountain of snow. The

17:33

place where she got lost and called her mother.

17:35

It was where a lot

17:36

of cloud trucks would come through.

17:38

This is just what I imagine happened,

17:41

but I think when the snowplows came,

17:43

she got scared. She ran up

17:45

the snow mountain to get

17:46

away, but got buried underneath

17:49

it. Apparently,

17:50

this happens a couple times every

17:53

year, especially when it snowed a

17:55

lot. What a thing to

17:57

imagine? You're walking down the street in

17:59

the middle of the city and you

18:01

see an arm peeking out of the

18:03

snow. Jesus, that's a horrible image. What an

18:05

awful way to It really is.

18:07

Hard not to wonder if maybe they

18:09

could have found a woman in time if the

18:11

police hadn't just dismissed the case.

18:14

They were so quick to

18:16

decide that a woman who goes to a gentleman's club

18:19

wasn't worth being taken seriously. There

18:21

are tons of cases like this.

18:24

This particular case had a really

18:26

tragic ending, but in general,

18:28

detectives have a pretty good track record for

18:30

bringing people safely back to their

18:32

families. Especially with

18:35

runways. And it turns

18:36

out that a lot of people run away

18:38

for pretty relatable reasons.

18:41

Hi. In most cases, people decide to

18:43

run away because they're having trouble with human

18:45

relationships. Family

18:46

issues, work problems, They have the urge to

18:49

escape from the pain of their current situation

18:51

and become free. Kudos on

18:53

things that most of the time, people

18:55

don't really want to run away.

18:58

He told us one story about a guy who suddenly disappeared from

19:00

work and left his wife and kids. But

19:03

he didn't run far

19:06

He was hiding in his car, parked at a

19:08

mountain, about ten kilometers away from his

19:10

home. How long are you? I think this

19:11

is you need to Japanese people, but he

19:13

probably thought that he couldn't deal with the shame

19:15

of screwing up at work. He couldn't let

19:17

his wife and children know about it because he

19:20

was embarrassed. So he thought he had no choice to

19:22

run away from his family. He

19:25

couldn't help but worry about his wife and

19:27

kids, so he would gaze

19:29

into his house every night and go back to the

19:31

mountains before dawn. For

19:33

people like that, they feel like they have no

19:35

right to go home on their

19:37

own. That's such a uniquely Japanese

19:40

tragedy. Contrary to our

19:42

expectations, we actually have lots

19:44

of cases where we found missing person

19:46

and they tell us thank you for

19:48

finding

19:48

me. Generally speaking, people don't

19:51

truly want to go missing. But

19:53

they find themselves in position that they feel like they

19:55

should

19:55

disappear. It's pretty heart

19:58

wrenching to imagine someone who wants to

20:01

go home but feels like they messed

20:03

up so bad that they can't.

20:05

People who feel this way need their loved

20:07

ones to come look for them to provide

20:09

reassurance that they're wanted back home. And

20:11

that they're not just useless failure or a

20:14

burden, which is a big fear for people

20:16

in Japan. In

20:17

most of the cases

20:18

we were hearing about, The

20:20

clients are reunited with their missing loved ones pretty

20:23

quickly. The

20:23

detectives get

20:24

to see their fair share of happy endings.

20:27

But how do

20:27

the detectives do it? Or

20:29

do you even start when you're trying to find a

20:31

missing person? We've tried finding

20:34

Morimoto with limited success.

20:37

Very little success. Our attempt to

20:39

catfish him on a sugar daddy website

20:41

that failed miserably.

20:42

Unsurprisingly, we were coming at it

20:45

all wronged. You have to be structured

20:47

and strategic if you're serious about

20:49

finding someone. Let's

20:52

go through it from the top. First,

20:55

you're gonna wanna build a profile about the

20:57

person. You can start by

20:59

asking the client, but you're gonna have to dig a

21:01

little Are there any notes they

21:03

left behind? Do they keep a

21:04

journal? Something that will let you into their

21:07

heads. Detectives often

21:09

call up old workplaces for

21:11

two reasons. One, it

21:13

helps construct a portrait of that person's

21:15

mental state leading up to the

21:17

disappearance. Maybe something happened

21:19

at work, or their performance was declining, or

21:21

they've been absent a lot more than

21:23

usual. Two, just

21:25

knowing what the person did at their old job

21:27

can be a

21:28

lead. For example, there's

21:30

a good chance that their current job

21:32

and their old job require a

21:34

similar skill set. we'll cold

21:37

call like a hundred of these sorts of

21:39

companies and see if this person's around.

21:41

Certain skills and licenses can be

21:43

a solid lead. For example, if they have a driver's license, which is

21:46

increasingly uncommon among kids

21:48

today that could be in transportation, delivery,

21:52

driving a taxi. Those

21:54

jobs tend to be easier to get hired

21:56

into with no questions asked.

21:58

If they have a teaching qualification, they

22:00

could be using that. Cosmetology licenses,

22:02

boarding licenses, any lead

22:04

helps. You're not gonna be surprised that one

22:06

of the tried and true methods for detectives

22:08

is to track a digital footprint.

22:11

It is the twenty first century after

22:12

all. Oh, yeah. Their computers are

22:15

gold mines. There have been a

22:17

bunch of cases where we found a

22:19

person's whereabouts just from their

22:21

email or their Facebook or

22:23

Instagram, that information is usually

22:25

stored somewhere on their computer. So

22:27

that's another angle we can pursue. An

22:31

unexpectedly common way for a location

22:33

to get accidentally revealed is if

22:35

a person uses public like

22:36

WiFi. You know, you go to

22:39

use the Internet at an airport, a

22:41

coffee shop, a net cafe, and

22:43

they send you an email with a

22:45

registration

22:45

link. And bingo, the detectives

22:47

can use that to figure out where you

22:49

are in real

22:50

time. On the other

22:51

hand, if a missing person leaves a laptop and

22:54

phone behind, that can really be a bad

22:56

sign. People who intend to start

22:58

over generally need these

22:59

things. There are

23:01

other worrisome things to find left

23:04

behind. ID, money, a change of

23:06

clothes. It

23:06

usually means the person doesn't plan

23:09

on starting a new life, which means

23:11

detectives have to consider the

23:13

possibility that the person tends to kill themselves

23:15

so they have to work really fast

23:17

and even start calling up

23:18

morgues, hospitals, police stations,

23:21

fire

23:21

departments. But assuming they're not a

23:24

suicide risk, people who

23:26

disappear and start new lives usually go

23:28

to places they've been before. Places

23:30

they've been on vacation, their college town, their

23:33

hometown, or they stay with someone they

23:35

know. It's human nature

23:36

to seek out familiar things.

23:39

Even after going through the trouble to disappear,

23:41

even

23:41

missing people

23:42

tend to do exactly what they

23:45

were doing before they went missing.

23:47

Even after they've disappeared,

23:50

people still tend to spend their

23:52

time doing whatever it is they enjoy

23:54

doing beforehand. So

23:56

we do a little digging into their

23:58

hobbies and interests. What's it called?

24:00

If they were into books

24:01

before, they're probably regulars in

24:03

a books for

24:04

now. Or

24:05

if they you could go ask around at some gyms.

24:08

Detectives will come up some places the person

24:10

might hang out and do surveillance there.

24:13

The surveillance tactic is especially

24:16

relevant if the missing person has a chronic

24:18

illness or maybe a routine check up they

24:20

go to every few months.

24:21

Sometimes a person will

24:24

come out of hiding. If they become seriously

24:26

ill and have to go to the

24:27

hospital, if they're making regular visits, we can

24:30

try to find a

24:31

pattern. Are

24:31

there particular weeks each month?

24:34

How about days of the week? Then we can

24:36

stay out the place on those days.

24:38

They find

24:38

out the right place and the right time

24:40

and basically just wait in the parking

24:43

lot. So

24:44

suppose you found your target alive and well

24:46

or just alive and not yet dead because you

24:48

found them at a hospital. Anyway,

24:52

congratulations. Here's the fun

24:53

part. Ultimately, the task

24:56

at hand is delivering their

24:58

location back to your client. You

25:00

don't wanna spook your

25:00

target, so you're going to be a little

25:03

sneaky.

25:03

This is why we spent a

25:06

whole day at detective school learning

25:08

a very particular set of

25:10

skills. The art of

25:12

Bico.

25:13

Bico, tailing, is a surprisingly

25:16

major part of the private eye job

25:18

description. I think I

25:19

spent

25:19

about half a quick job telling

25:22

people. Sometimes

25:23

I don't tell anyone for all months.

25:26

But there was one time I

25:28

tell someone without sleeping for three

25:30

days. That was the most significant case of tailing that I'd

25:33

ever done. I I did that without sleeping. I thought I

25:35

dropped dead.

25:36

If you've successfully identified your

25:39

target, there's a good chance be traveling around by

25:41

car, especially in the countryside where there's

25:43

less public transport. Han

25:45

Zawazan, our primary instructor for this

25:47

part of the effective school. Taught

25:49

us some of the basics of tailing by

25:50

car, but there was a slight problem.

25:53

None of us

25:54

really drive very well. I

25:56

didn't get my license until I was twenty one and

25:58

Jake didn't get his until he was

26:00

thirty four. We both should have

26:02

failed the test. So it's

26:04

the that we learned how did GPS track a

26:07

moving vehicle instead. This

26:09

was much more our speed, and we finally

26:11

got to use a cool detective

26:13

gadget. It's about the size of a small candy

26:15

bar. It has a magnet on the back that

26:17

you're supposed to use to attach it to the

26:19

underside of a

26:20

car. Maybe you've seen something like this in the spine

26:23

movie. Our instructors took us to

26:24

a garage to have us try it out.

26:26

Hanza was Han carefully laid out a flattened

26:29

piece of cardboard, underneath

26:31

the trunk of one of their vans. This was

26:33

a nice gesture so that we didn't get motor

26:35

oil on our

26:35

shirts. Then it gives a demonstration.

26:38

Hanzoa is

26:44

explaining that you have to get

26:46

down. feel around the frame of the

26:48

muffler to find a flat spot to touch

26:50

the tracker too. Hi.

26:56

The key is

26:59

to be able

27:01

to do this quickly. You might only have a

27:03

small window of time to get the job done.

27:06

While your target runs convenience store for some rice

27:08

balls and potato chips. It

27:10

goes without saying that you won't have the luxury of

27:12

folded cardboard to lie upon, so

27:15

wear a ratty old shirt, I guess. And

27:18

you have got to be quiet about it.

27:20

You should only hear a little clink

27:22

to confirm you've got it attached.

27:23

Right there?

27:29

Alright. It's right

27:32

in here. That magnet

27:39

is really strong. But once

27:41

it's attached, you can just track where your target goes using your

27:44

phone. And voila, you know where

27:46

they are at all times. Is

27:48

kind of creepy. Please don't try this

27:50

at home. On

27:51

the other hand, tailing on foot is

27:53

a whole other thing. So much easier

27:55

to get caught. this,

27:58

Han's Amazon took us to another location

28:00

of the school out in the suburbs

28:02

where they had a very nice garage.

28:05

Before you start following your target, you

28:07

wanna take stock of your surroundings. You

28:09

know, get the lay of the

28:10

land. Could they slip underground to catch

28:13

the subway? And where are the bus

28:15

stops? This is important because if

28:16

you know the exits and entrances, you

28:19

can avoid coming face to face with

28:21

your target. The idea is to take the

28:23

opposite side of where you think they'll

28:25

be, and that way, you're ready to head in any

28:27

direction that they decide to go.

28:29

Even the

28:29

best detectives get caught sometimes. Hans

28:32

Alessan

28:32

told us that if the person we are telling confront

28:34

us, we need to respond with

28:37

faint ignorance. Basically act like we don't know what

28:39

on Earth they're talking about. You have

28:41

to muster up the best acting you've ever done by

28:43

getting defensive and saying something like

28:45

Which is basically

28:49

like, What are you talking about?

28:52

The most common failure in tailing is losing

28:54

your target. It takes a lot of

28:56

concentration to follow someone.

28:59

In our line of work, if you

29:01

take your eyes off the target for even

29:04

three seconds, the likelihood of you

29:06

losing them shoots up.

29:07

If that does happen,

29:08

stay calm and get your bearings. It

29:10

won't do you any good to panic. Next,

29:13

we're driven to what looks like a sprawling

29:16

suburban area. Where the roads are wide lined

29:18

with small shops and factories. Kind

29:20

of reminded me of Oakland or certain

29:22

parts of Los Angeles. They gave me

29:24

a camera to use for the test.

29:26

If I were a real detective, I need to take photos of

29:28

my target when they entered or exited a

29:30

building so I could show my clients where

29:33

they've been. Our task was

29:35

to tail Hanzalassem, take photos

29:37

of him across town, and keep

29:39

our communication open with our

29:40

instructor, Tanaka. How do we

29:43

do?

29:43

Well, that's after the break. Back

29:50

in the day, students at Sakura such go

29:52

detective agency were asked to follow

29:54

real civilians for this part of the test.

29:57

But that didn't age so well. So now they have us

29:59

follow someone from the detective agency.

30:02

In our case, that was Hanzawa san.

30:04

Who he started spying on from across a busy

30:07

highway on the outskirts of Sapporo.

30:10

My first

30:13

task was to snap the picture of our target as he

30:16

came out of

30:16

the building. Target is leaving the building. But

30:18

but there was a truck right in

30:20

front of us. It didn't take long for

30:22

us to finally find our target. Don't lose

30:24

a job help. We're counting on

30:27

you. We literally lost our target

30:29

within the first three seconds.

30:31

So we just just disappeared behind a bus and he'll

30:33

be still walking. We followed him by van for

30:35

a couple blocks until we got close to

30:37

the train station Han Zawazan

30:42

told us it was time to get out of the

30:44

car. We

30:50

are following

30:53

our target, staying about two meters

30:56

behind. Shokan and I had to work as

30:58

a team, but also pretend we didn't

31:00

know each other. We

31:02

also had to be

31:02

on the phone the whole time so that we could

31:04

communicate but still act natural.

31:06

So

31:07

could we got orders to lower

31:10

the distance, man? We're gonna have to walk a little faster, tease

31:12

this kid this fast. I

31:14

was focused on getting the distance

31:16

right. But I also had to basically speed walk

31:18

to keep up with Han's Alisson's rapid

31:21

pace. About ten minutes in, our

31:23

target went underground into

31:25

the subway. This was our first time in

31:27

Sapporo, so everything was unfamiliar. Shoko

31:29

was zooming, but I ran

31:31

into my nemesis. Lots of

31:34

stairs. Stares everywhere. When you

31:36

have a crap knee, a staircase

31:38

is a real obstacle. Honsai san

31:40

ended up getting on the subway and Jake

31:42

just barely made it onto the train.

31:45

He barged in there with absolutely zero

31:48

chill. My instinct was

31:50

to keep my distance and to stay on the

31:52

same side of the train where her target sat

31:53

down. That way, I figured I could

31:56

keep track of him without ever looking at

31:58

him direct Jake, on the

31:59

other hand, plopped down directly across

32:02

from our target. Hey, I wanted

32:03

to make sure I didn't lose him.

32:06

After we got off the train, we followed Hanzawa

32:08

san through sprawling underground

32:10

walkways. There's like a whole

32:12

city underneath Sapporo.

32:14

I'm going up to steps. If he doesn't go up to steps,

32:17

let me know.

32:21

Okay. I'll try

32:24

and catch him.

32:24

Okay. Go go

32:26

go go go go go go

32:28

go. I've totally

32:31

lost him by trying to go

32:34

ahead. Saw in your hands now. You have to

32:36

decide. Oh, by

32:38

the way, Everyone is calling me Yoshida san

32:40

because that's my surname in Japanese.

32:45

Jake, are you giving up? Jake?

32:57

I tried giving him directions so that he could find us again.

33:01

Three coin. There's like

33:03

a Lawson. There is

33:05

a bunch of clothing shops.

33:07

I don't think that there was

33:09

a McDonald's

33:10

now. And you might wanna hurry a

33:12

little bit because we're getting outside now.

33:15

And that's how we

33:18

lost Jake. But I

33:20

didn't want to lose Hanzawa san.

33:22

I followed him to the subtotal clock tower,

33:24

which is a famous tourist landmark.

33:26

He waited there for a while,

33:28

And finally, another man showed

33:31

up. I took

33:31

a bunch of photos of him talking.

33:35

Mission

33:35

accomplished. Jake finally

33:37

caught up, and it was time to get our

33:40

evaluation from Hanzawa san.

33:44

Hi.

33:45

Jixon came and sat down directly at the house.

33:48

That's not advisors. You're right.

33:49

You're much

33:50

better off where your Shida san was positioned.

33:53

And you wanna stay out of your target's peripheral

33:56

vision. Saying I was

33:58

too close on the train, I stuck

34:00

out, but Choco who's sneaky

34:02

by nature with often a corner

34:04

in the sort of the perfect position to spy

34:06

without being noticed. Thank you very

34:08

much. You're welcome. It's one of the

34:10

compliments that I was spending It's in

34:12

in my profession, that's a total

34:14

compliment. Hanzo has

34:15

passed me with flying colors.

34:18

Jake, not

34:20

so much.

34:20

I really stood

34:23

out. I was

34:25

like an eyesore. I

34:28

don't

34:28

even know how to translate McChex's, like like like fucking terrible.

34:31

He he he totally stood out.

34:33

I got a anti ninja.

34:37

I'm a stand and fight kind of guy. I'm

34:39

not really good at blending in.

34:42

Something I wasn't expecting from more three days

34:44

of detective school was a full assessment of our strengths and

34:46

weaknesses. After this many years on the

34:48

job, you don't get a chance to be

34:50

evaluated, at least not

34:52

very often. Or to attend a

34:54

graduation ceremony.

34:57

I didn't think

35:00

I I

35:13

All of our teachers attended and Yamada san handed up

35:16

thick Canvas diplomas with our names engraved on

35:19

them and it was very

35:20

nice. We felt accomplished and we

35:22

really did learn so much about why people disappear

35:24

and how you should go about

35:26

finding them. And

35:27

if Tishanka ever does pursue a career as

35:29

an expat detective, this should get her foot

35:31

in the door. If everyone is as

35:34

good as such ago likes her enough, Maybe they'd offer

35:36

her a job. And there's no better

35:38

way to cozy up to people than to go out

35:40

for dinner and drinks.

35:42

This is called nomenication

35:44

in Japan. Is a combination of the word, no mood to

35:46

drink, and communication.

35:48

They treated us to a feast of

35:50

some of the best seafood in Hokkaido

35:54

We ate salmon, scallops, octopus, shellfish,

35:57

and all kinds of very

35:59

tender meats. Plus the finest beers

36:01

in sake, Hokkaido had

36:04

to off her? Yamada san in

36:06

particular was like a

36:06

different man out of his suit. I had

36:09

something for Yamada san

36:12

too. A nifty Star Wars t shirt. I noticed back on

36:14

a first day that he had this tiny little

36:16

Darth Vader sticker on his laptop case, and

36:18

I couldn't help but point it out.

36:22

Thank you very much.

36:24

Do you happen to like Star Wars?

36:30

Yes, I do. I throw the movie.

36:32

After dinner, I suggested we

36:34

go to Karaoke, the national pastime

36:38

of Japan. I also to

36:40

sing the sacrosachiko jingle

36:43

with everyone. Absolutely. Seeing

36:46

a Sakura such Go theme song with Secura such Go detectives would be

36:49

the most surreal and

36:51

fun thing ever. So

37:03

after we warmed up

37:06

a little bit, Tassanka

37:09

queued it up. We let

37:12

Anna and her

37:16

grandson have them

37:20

like first. Oh my

37:23

god. As

37:28

for us. Well,

37:31

what's

37:33

your call?

37:36

Shoku got her karaoke session.

37:39

Tizanko is one step closer to becoming Japan's first

37:41

Sri Lankaan detective, and we learned a

37:44

lot of useful investigative skills to track

37:46

down Mory Moto. But any

37:47

detective will admit that it's often just

37:50

luck that makes or breaks a

37:52

case. That's something they cannot

37:54

teach you at

37:56

detective school. Here's one of my favorite

37:58

stories we heard in Sapporo.

38:00

Curacao went to a busy tourist

38:02

destination to look for a

38:04

missing person. It was a needle in

38:06

a haystack situation, but he had

38:08

a gut feeling that the missing person

38:10

was there. So

38:12

he went. And while he was waiting in traffic, a

38:14

car zoomed by that happened to be the

38:16

same color and model as the one that he

38:18

was looking for. So he chased

38:20

after it,

38:22

and Lois behold, he found his missing person. Jake,

38:24

didn't you say that something like

38:26

this has happened to you as well?

38:29

Yeah. I find this is definitely true in journalism.

38:32

Often, it's just dumb luck. Like

38:34

back

38:34

in two

38:35

thousand and three, I was looking

38:37

for the witness to a brutal murder

38:39

that happened in my own neighborhood with

38:42

no luck. I decided

38:43

to take a break from knocking

38:45

on doors.

38:45

I went to my favorite bar in Reponge and told the

38:48

bartender my tale of

38:50

whoa.

38:50

It turns out, this bartender was

38:52

the eyewitness I was looking for.

38:55

And I somehow just stumbled upon

38:58

him. There have been moments in this podcast

39:00

where things felt like they magically clicked

39:02

together too. And meeting in

39:04

Nagy Son or our final night in Sapporo was one of

39:05

them. United

39:06

Sun doesn't work for the

39:09

sacrosachiko detective agency. He works

39:11

out of the Yokohama office for a group affiliated

39:14

with Sakura

39:15

Missing persons searched Japan

39:17

or MPS for

39:19

short.

39:19

We had no idea about this in advance, but our

39:22

friend at Socrisaccio Sachiko

39:24

agency had thoughtfully arranged an interview

39:26

with MPS. It was a group that

39:28

we'd been trying to get in touch with four

39:30

months, and Avisan was a

39:32

boss. MPS is one

39:34

of the biggest online bulletin boards

39:36

for missing people in

39:38

Japan. It's like the back of a milk

39:39

carton, but a website. People either

39:42

post on the website about a missing person they're

39:44

trying to find, Are they called

39:46

the organization directly

39:47

for help? Yenagi san is a tall

39:49

man in his seventies. With

39:51

what I immediately recognized as a police detective

39:54

face and he's very

39:55

earnest.

39:56

If you hang around Japanese cops for

39:59

thirty years, you start to recognize the look, even their

40:01

area of expertise, cops who

40:04

bust Sakura look

40:06

like

40:06

yakuza. Homicide cops look

40:08

like they have indigestion. We

40:10

were

40:10

chatting with Yanagi son about privacy laws in

40:13

Japan when his phone rang. Oh,

40:16

sorry. This is a missing

40:18

person's call. I have to take

40:20

this. Excuse

40:21

me. Hello?

40:24

Yes. This is m p as

40:26

Japan. He listened carefully to the

40:28

woman on the other line. She

40:31

was audibly panicking, but he gently

40:33

guided her step by step on

40:35

what she Where to go on the

40:37

website? Who to contact next? Yanagi someone's warm in

40:39

reassuring. It's clear he does this all

40:42

the time.

40:43

There was a phone call about

40:45

grandmother that went missing.

40:47

Sorry about

40:49

that. He

40:50

ended the call by snapping shut his foot phone. He's seriously old

40:53

school. He doesn't even use

40:55

email, which might explain why

40:56

it's so hard to reach MPS. Yanagi

41:00

son and Jake hit it off immediately.

41:02

He was super excited to

41:04

meet Jake. He kept saying how he had read

41:06

about Jake's background on the Internet. They

41:09

formed a swift

41:09

bromance. Tassanka and I were clearly the third and

41:12

fourth wheel, but that's

41:14

okay. He's

41:15

an ex cop.

41:17

And well, I spent my twenties and thirties in Japan

41:19

rubbing shoulders with police as a crime

41:21

reporter. Yes, we are from opposite ends of the

41:24

crime world, but we share a

41:26

special understanding. After he retired, he decided to help find missing

41:27

people. That's his main job

41:30

now. But because he was a

41:32

former cop,

41:34

He was able to talk to us a bit about what it's like deal with

41:36

missing persons reports from a cop's perspective.

41:41

The thing is, when a person

41:43

who hasn't broken the away or goes missing, the

41:46

police have no responsibility to

41:48

look for

41:50

them. All they have to do is make a missing person's report.

41:52

And if the person shows

41:54

up, say to renew their license.

41:57

The police might take the persons side

42:00

and say, hey, there's a

42:02

missing persons report out

42:04

for you. Is you consider letting your family hear your

42:06

voice so they know you are

42:08

okay. And they might let them use

42:10

their phone. I

42:12

think that's a very considerate response for

42:15

a policeman to

42:15

have, but an indifferent policeman

42:18

who just looked the

42:20

other way.

42:22

Eunagi son falls into the former category.

42:24

That's why he's continued into this kind

42:26

of work even after retiring. Being

42:28

an ex cop has its benefits too.

42:32

When you're

42:32

on the force, you can't really help with cases outside of

42:34

the scope of your job. It's hard

42:37

to offer advice or assistance to people without

42:39

a lot of red

42:41

tape involved. But as a former cop, you have a lot more

42:44

leeway. Yonagesson previously spent

42:46

a quarter of a century as a police detective

42:49

and Toshiba prefecture. He offered to show

42:51

us around including in Nico City.

42:54

Nico is a

42:54

popular tourist spot, a couple

42:57

hours north of Tokyo, and

42:59

where as luck would have it, we had been planning

43:01

to go for months.

43:06

If you keep up with the news in Japan,

43:08

Nico might sound familiar. That's because it's home

43:10

to one of

43:11

the most perplexing and widely covered

43:13

disappearances in recent memory.

43:16

On July

43:20

twenty ninth

43:23

two

43:23

thousand eighteen,

43:26

a thirty six year old French tourist, named Tiffany Varone, left

43:28

her hotel at ten AM in

43:29

Nicoll, and was never

43:32

seen again.

43:33

It was like

43:34

she vanished into thin air, and it

43:36

caused a

43:37

storm in this sleepy tourist town, and

43:39

all over the world. Nicko

43:42

is famous for its tranquil

43:44

scenery in world heritage sites.

43:46

A foreign tourist going missing

43:48

there with no explanation is

43:50

a really big deal. And on the other side of the world,

43:53

in France, they wanted answers.

43:56

What happened to

43:58

Tefane Veron? Next week

44:02

on the evaporated,

44:04

we're going to meet retired detective

44:06

Anagi in his old stopping grounds.

44:08

Nickel. Join us as we retrace her steps on

44:10

the fourth anniversary of her

44:12

vanishing and confront local

44:15

police to see if they

44:18

finally admit that it may not have been an accident.

44:20

Hey,

44:20

don't wanna wait for that next episode?

44:24

You don't have to. Unlock all the episodes of the

44:26

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44:37

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Podcast, or visit get the

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wherever you get

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your podcast. The evaporated,

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gone with the gods,

44:49

is a productive of campsite

44:52

media with Sony Music

44:54

Entertainment. It was reported by Jake

44:56

Adelstein and

44:58

myself, Sjögrenbeck. This episode

45:00

was also written by me along with

45:02

Amy Plumbak and Tishanka

45:04

SIRipala. Our producer is

45:06

Tishanka SIRipala. The executive

45:08

producer is Josh Dean. Story

45:10

editing by Josh Dean and Amy Klampack.

45:14

Back checking by Anika Robbins

45:16

and Hemati, Sound

45:18

design, mix and engineering by

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Takayasizawa with assistant engineering by

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Yurash, Yovanovitch, and Alex Port

45:25

Felix. Additional reporting and production assistance

45:27

by Himari Iwamoto. Voice

45:30

acting on this episode by Kazumi

45:32

Ogawa,

45:33

Alex Thomas, Takayasizawa, Jean Koji

45:35

Yamaguchi, and a special appearance by JeanHA.

45:38

EDITORIAL Support by EYLEA PAPES

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The executive producers at

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Hoth, and Matt Shire. If you enjoyed

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