21



The Mystery of the Hanging House: 2

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SETAGAYA, TOKYO: THE PEOPLE OF THE HANGING HOUSE
Famous Politician's Shadow: Now You See It, Now You Don't
Amazing, Ingenious Cloak of Invisibility- What Secret Is It Hiding?
[From The - Weekly, November 21]

As first revealed in the October 7 issue of this magazine, there is a house in a quiet
Setagaya residential neighbor hood known to locals as the "hanging house." All those
who ever lived there have been visited by misfortune and ended their lives in suicide, the
major ity by hanging.
[Summary of earlier article omitted]
Our investigations have led us to only one solid fact: namely, that there is a brick wall
standing at the end of every route we have taken in attempting to learn the identity of the
new owner of the "hanging house." We managed to find the construction company that
built the house, but all attempts to get information from them were rejected. The dummy
company through which the lot was purchased is legally 100% clean and offers no
opening. The whole deal was set up with such clever attention to detail, we can only
assume there was some reason for that.
One other thing that aroused our curiosity was the accounting firm that assisted in

setting up the dummy company that bought the land. Our investigations have shown us
that the firm was established five years ago as a kind of shadow "subcontractor" to an ac-
counting firm well known in political circles. The prominent accounting firm has several
of these "subcontractors," each designed to handle a particular kind of job and to be
dropped like a lizard's tail in case of trouble. The accounting firm itself has never been
investigated by the Prosecutor's Office, but according to a political reporter for a certain
major newspaper, "Its name has come up in any number of political scandals, so of
course the authorities have their eye on it." It's not hard to guess, then, that there is some
kind of connection between the new resident of the "hanging house" and some powerful
politician. The high walls, the tight security using the latest electronic equipment, the
leased black Mercedes, the cleverly set- up dummy company: this kind of know-how
suggests to us the involvement of a major political figure.

Total Secrecy
Our news team did a survey of the movements into and out of the "hanging house" by
the black Mercedes. In one ten- day period, the car made a total of twenty-one visits to the
house, or approximately two visits per day. They observed a regular pattern to these vis-
its. First, the car would show up at nine o'clock in the morning and leave at ten- thirty.
The driver was very punctual, with no more than five minutes' variation from day to day.
In contrast to the predictability of these morning visits, however, the others were highly
irregular. Most were recorded to have occurred between one and three in the afternoon,
but the times in and out varied considerably. There was also considerable variation in the
length of time the car would remain parked in the compound, from under twenty min utes
to a full hour.
These facts have led us to the following suppositions:
1. The car's regular a.m. visits: These suggest that someone is "commuting" to this
house. The identity of the "commuter" is unclear, however, owing to the black tinted
glass used all around the car.
2. The car's irregular p.m. visits: These suggest the arrival of guests and are probably
tailored to the guests' convenience. Whether these "guests" arrive singly or with others is
unclear.
3. There seems to be no activity in the house at night. It is also unclear whether or not
anyone lives there. From outside the wall, it is impossible to tell if any lights are being
used.
One more important point: The only thing to enter or leave the prop erty during our
ten- day survey was the black Mercedes: no other cars, no people on foot. Common sense
tells us that something strange is going on here. The "someone" living in the house never
goes out to shop or to take walks. People arrive and depart exclu sively in the large
Mercedes with dark- tinted windows. In other words, for some reason, they do not want
their faces seen, under any circumstances. What could be the reason for this? Why must
they go to so much trouble and expense in order to do what they do in total secrecy?
We might add here that the front gate is the only way in and out of the property. A
narrow alley runs behind the lot, but this leads nowhere. The only way into or out of this
alley is through someone's private property. According to the neighbors, none of the
residents is presently using the alley, which is no doubt why the house has no gate to the
back alley. The only thing there is the towering wall, like huge castle ramparts.

Several times during the ten days, the button on the intercom at the front gate was
pushed by people who ap peared to be newspaper canvassers or salesmen, but with no
response what ever. If there was anyone inside, it is conceivable that a closed-circuit
video camera was being used to screen visitors. There were no deliveries of mail or by
any of the express services.
For these reasons, the only investigative route left open to us was to tail the Mercedes
and determine its destination. Following the shiny, slow- moving car through city traffic
was not difficult, but we could get only as far as the entrance to the underground park ing
lot of a first-class Akasaka hotel. A uniformed guard was stationed there, and the only
way in was with a special pass card, so our car was unable to follow the Mercedes inside.
This particular hotel is the site of numerous international conferences, which means that
many VIPs stay there, as do many famous entertainers from abroad. To ensure their
security and privacy, the VIP parking lot is separate from that for ordinary guests, and
several elevators have been reserved for VIPs' exclusive use, with no external indicators
of their movements. This makes it possible for these special guests to check in and out
unobtrusively. The Mercedes is apparently parked in one of the VIP spaces. According to
the hotel management's brief, carefully measured response to this magazine's inquiries,
these special spaces are "ordinarily" leased at a special rate only to uniquely qualified
corporate entities after a "thoroughgoing background check," but we were unable to
obtain any detailed information on either the conditions of use or the users themselves.
The hotel has a shopping arcade, several cafes and restaurants, four wed ding halls,
and three conference halls, which means that it is in use day and night by a wide variety
of people in large numbers. To determine the identities of the passengers in the Mercedes
in a place like that would be impossible without special authority. People could alight
from the car, take one of the nearby exclusive elevators, get off at any floor they liked,
and blend in with the crowd. It should be clear from all this that a system for maintaining
absolute secrecy is solidly in place. We can glimpse here an almost excessive use of
money and political power. As can be seen from the hotel management's explanation, it
is no easy matter to lease and use one of these VIP parking spaces. Contributing to the
need for "thoroughgoing background checks," no doubt, are the plans of security
authorities involved with the protection of foreign dignitaries, which means that some
political connections would have to be involved. Just having a lot of money would not be
enough, though it goes w ithout saying that all of this would take quite a lot of money.
[Omitted here: conjectures that the property is being used by a religious organization
with the backing of a powerful politician]