Ex-Mitsubishi UFJ Employee Yukari Imamura’s Safe Deposit Box Theft and Local Suspicions

Had incurred a 1 billion yen loss in FX trading.

On January 14, the Metropolitan Police Department arrested former Mitsubishi UFJ Bank employee Yukari Imamura (46) for stealing 19.5 kg of gold bars (worth approximately 260 million yen) from a customer’s safe deposit box. In addition to the charges related to this arrest, Imamura is also suspected of having stolen cash and precious metals from customers’ safe deposit boxes at the Nerima and Tamagawa branches, where she worked, over a period of four and a half years from April 2020 to October 2024.

“In September last year, while working at the Mitsubishi UFJ Bank Nerima branch, she illegally accessed two customers’ safe deposit boxes and stole gold bars. The stolen gold had already been pawned at a total of seven pawnshops in Tokyo and Chiba. Imamura has reportedly admitted to the charges. There are also numerous other offenses, with over 60 victims and total damages estimated to exceed 1.5 billion yen.

Imamura was in charge of managing spare keys for the safe deposit boxes stored at the bank and used them to carry out the thefts. When the disappearance of cash from a box was about to be discovered, she covered it up by taking money from another deposit box. If a customer unexpectedly visited the bank, she would pretend there was a malfunction to turn them away. Due to her elaborate cover-up tactics, her crimes went undetected for four and a half years,” said a journalist from a national newspaper’s social affairs department.

It is believed that Imamura spent most of the proceeds from her thefts on FX trading and horse racing. According to investigators, “She spent a considerable amount on FX and horse racing for over five years. Based on current findings, her FX losses alone exceed 1 billion yen.”

To compensate for her enormous losses, Imamura repeatedly committed theft. However, her lifestyle did not reflect someone burdened with billions in debt.

When a FRIDAY Digital reporter visited Imamura’s residence, not only was her main house impressive, but the large adjacent pay-by-the-month parking lot also stood out. The combined property spans over 860 square meters, with an estimated value exceeding 400 million yen.

Until her dismissal in November last year, Imamura held the position of deputy branch manager in the sales department. Additionally, she earned approximately 300,000 to 400,000 yen per month in rental income from the parking lot, and she was known in the neighborhood as a small-scale wealthy individual.