A single IOU is causing a stir.
The author is Sadaho Maeda. This is the real name of Shinichi Chiba (82 years old), who died suddenly of pneumonia caused by a new type of coronavirus last summer. The amount of his debt was 13 million yen. What was most shocking was that his eldest son, Maeda Makenyu (25, current stage name: Nitta Mackenyu), was the lender. Mr. Tetsuya Suzuki, the representative of Chiba’s office, Astoria, made the accusation.
When the agent announced that “creditors should notify us” to liquidate Mr. Chiba’s estate, the lawyer representing Kensuke sent us this IOU. This was around the end of September last year. Immediately, people concerned were confused, saying, “What kind of child would let his parents write an IOU?” Since the IOU had Mr. Chiba’s autograph on it, I, as a representative of his office, had to confirm whether it was genuine or not.
The photo below is the “IOU”. Mr. Suzuki said, “I knew at a glance that it was not Mr. Chiba’s signature”. The photo shows Chiba’s autograph, which was left in the office. Indeed, the handwriting is different.
“The signature on the IOU was familiar. It was very similar to the handwriting of Mr. Chiba’s crony, Mr. X. When I saw that the IOU read, “The property in Kimitsu’s house will be used as collateral”, a frightening scenario occurred to me: Mr. X might be forging the IOU and trying to steal Mr. Chiba’s belongings,” Mr. Suzuki said.
There is a reason why Mr. Suzuki’s skepticism.
“We found out through social networking posts that his cronies were “sharing” his belongings when they were supposed to be catalogued for inheritance purposes. Valuable belongings, including costumes worn in the movie “Sengoku JSDF,” were missing from the house in Kimitsu where Mr. Chiba had lived.”
After Mr. Chiba’s death, Mr. Y, who is said to be “a person with Mr. X’s influence” took up residence in the Kimitsu house. In the presence of his eldest daughter, Juri Manase (47), who had decided to give limited approval to the estate, and her lawyer, they proceeded to sort out Mr. Y’s household goods and Chiba’s belongings to compile an inventory.
Mr. Y uttered something that made us doubt our ears. There was an imitation pistol used in the shooting in an underground warehouse in Kimitsu, with a sticker indicating that it belonged to Mr. Y. When Juri complained, “This pistol has been in my house since I was a little girl,” Mr. Y replied, “Mr. X told me to put a sticker on anything that has a value. I was not present at the time, but the evidence is still there.
The IOU was withdrawn without explanation about a month after it was submitted.
We directly interviewed Mr. X.
–Did Mr. Chiba owe a debt to Mr. Mackenyu?
“Yes, he did.”
–What was Mr. Chiba in debt for?
“I think it was mostly for movies.”
–Why did you withdraw the loan?
“Because I didn’t want my name to appear on the list of creditors. I only submitted it to Mr. Chiba to calculate how much he owed me, and I had no intention of asking him to pay it back.”
–Mr. Suzuki said, “The signature on the IOU is not that of Chiba himself.
“I saw the actual document, but it didn’t look any different. That was written by Mr. Chiba.”
–Mr. Suzuki also said, “It looks like Mr. X’s handwriting.
“Suzuki is just mistaken because there have been many occasions in the past where he has said, ‘X, you should sign on my behalf. This time, I did not write on his behalf. It is Suzuki who is supposed to have lent Mr. Chiba nearly 10 million yen, but do you have an IOU?”
–I heard that he had instructed Mr. Y to “put a seal on the money items.”
“I did not say that. Now I hear it for the first time, I will check with Mr. Y.”
Mr. Suzuki sighs.
“The existence or non-existence of a claim is not admissible without a lawyer checking the evidence, so it’s not for Mr. X to interject. When the expose-style YouTube star GaaSyy attacked Mackenyu Nitta, it was Mr. Chiba’s cronies who were mentioned by name. I am not saying that I am 100 percent justified, but at the very least, I consider them to be people who should be removed from around Mr. Juri and Tasuku.
As dazzling as the brilliance of Shinichi Chiba, the great star of the Showa period, the darkness is just as deep.