In the mid nineties a 27 year old Mayumi Arashi went to visit a fellow classmate only to never
be seen again[a]. The case would remain stagnant for years, until over a decade later an interview
would surface[b] that would turn the case on its head. Today we’re deep diving into
the intriguing case of Mayumi Arashi and the mystery that shrouds her disappearance.
Among the hustling and bustling of a busy 1994 Tokyo [c]lived 27 year old Mayumi Arashi.[d]
She had temporarily moved back into her family home with her parents and sister [e]while
she cared for her then 1 year old child and attended school[f]. On September 2nd, an upset
and stressed Mayumi left her child with her family, and told her sister Yoko[g] that she
would be meeting with a classmate before leaving her Sumida home[h]. That was the last time
Mayumi Arashi would ever be seen. The Arashi family reported Mayumi missing to the authorities,
who placed her in the Japanese Missing Persons Database.[i] Unfortunately, the story never
caught the attention of the larger Japanese public, and a lack of any evidence or leads
led to a stagnation in the case, and Mayumi would remain missing with no end in sight.
The stagnation in the case would remain, that was, until an interview aired from the show
the Super J Channel would ignite the internet’s interest in the case.[j] The interview seemed
like it would be similar to any other true crime interview, with the host having a series
of conversations with each of the Arashi family members, starting with the sister Yoko[k].
While the segment started normally, viewers soon noticed something odd happening in the
background when Yoko and Mayumi’s mother appeared behind her daughter, looking nervous.
She sort of shuffled around in the background, clearly trying to do something without her
daughter noticing[l]. She eventually was able to hang up a note on the shelf behind where
Yoko was sitting,[m] which everyone disregarded until the Father’s interview[n] started
and more and more people began to realize what the note said. The handwritten note read
“Don’t believe Yoko’s story”[o]. Before we dive into what this note could mean, let’s
explore what the note is referring to when it says Yoko’s story.
During Yoko’s segment of the interview she revealed much about the case[p]. Yoko claimed
that the meeting between Mayumi and a classmate was a lie, and that after her sister’s disappearance
she found a handwritten confession note [q]from Mayumi admitting to an affair between her
and a man listed only as “A”[r]. In the note she states that “A” somehow betrayed
her and asks for forgiveness from her family, yet oddly enough Mayumi left “A”s number
in the letter.[s] Unfortunately, anyone wanting to see this note would be sorely disappointed,
as Yoko ripped the letter to shreds in a fit of anger after reading it[t], leaving only
her word to assure us of its existence. According to Yoko’s story she later received a call
from “A” himself [u]who said that he was with Mayumi before her disappearance, and
that he hoped whoever was responsible for her disappearance would be sent to prison
if her body was found.[v] The more you hear about Yoko’s story, the more it starts to
fall apart. If she knew “A” was in contact with Mayumi before her disappearance, making
him possibly the last person to see her alive, and if Yoko had his phone number and thus
a way to contact him, why not report it to the police? Instead of doing that, Yoko instead
decided to hire a private investigator who handled the case who investigated for about
6 months, ending about halfway through 1995[w]. During his investigation, this PI reportedly
tracked “A” into the woods in the middle of the night where he was bringing two drinks[x].
While one of those drinks could have been for Mayumi, possibly proving that “A”
was holding her captive,[y] no evidence exists of this investigator’s existence other than
Yoko’s word. Yoko also alleged that a strange man contacted her parents[z], but given that
Yoko gave this statement on her parent’s behalf and they never mentioned it themselves
it’s hard to prove that this truly happened.
Unfortunately, no version of the interview exists on the internet, with only two single
screenshots of the segment appearing to have made it onto the internet.[aa] The only reason
we even know what happened in the interview is because of a variety of forums where viewers
recounted the segment as it was happening. The fact that the contents of the interview
is largely word of mouth, as well as the many obvious leads in the case that seem to have
been completely ignored by the police have led many on the internet to believe that the
whole case is actually a hoax. While there isn’t any completely solid proof to support
this theory, many often point out the weirdly striking resemblance that Yoko and Mayumi
have to a popular japanese comedy duo[ab]. However, not only are there several archive
threads across multiple forums from people who were posting while watching the interview
live, Super J Channel has an archive[ac] where you can find a brief description of the segment,
so we know that at the very least that the interview did in fact air.
Another popular theory is that Mayumi, ashamed of her affair and under stress from her then
one year old child, had herself disappeared[ad]. Japan has an infamous underground service
where people who are unhappy with their lives can pay to be “disappeared” leaving their
former lives behind and their families wondering what happened to them while the person getting
disappeared goes to live a brand new life somewhere else[ae]. Given the kind of stresses
and pressure many Japanese people talk about experiencing in their culture, it’s very
possible that Mayumi was so upset over the way her life was going that this was the only
way she could see to move forward. While this is certainly one of the less sinister theories
that have been floating around the internet, it’s no less sad. If this theory really
is true it’s so horrible that this woman felt the only way she could be happy in her
life was to abandon her child and leave her family scared over her fate while she began
a double life who knows where.
Moving back to the sinister theories, another popular stream of thought has to do with some
aspects of this case we have left mostly unexplored in the form of the Arashi parents.[af] While
not much is known about them, the audiences who watched the interview noted how the mother
seemed more attached to Mayumi then she was to Yoko. While this could definitely be explained
away as a mother worried and mourning over her daughter who was missing versus her daughter
who was still at home, others think it points to something more disturbing. Could the mother
be over exaggerating her love for Mayumi so no one would suspect her and her husband of
doing something to their daughter. With Mayumi’s unfortunate living situation and the possibility
that they could have found out about the affair, maybe they were so concerned with their families
pride and honor that they decided to deal with their daughter, either by sending her
off or possibly even by killing her. Then, to make matters worse and protect themselves
from scrutiny by the police, the parents decided to put all of the attention and suspicion
on to Yoko by placing the note that got everyone’s attention in the first place,[ag] urging audiences
to trust them and distrust Yoko, despite them having done nothing to prove that we should
believe their words about Yoko.
The last major theory about this situation, and the one that is probably the most popular
belief, is that Yoko killed her sister.[ah] Yoko’s story is flimsy and suspicious to
say the least, with many loose ends and many obvious leads that seem to have been completely
ignored and blatantly not taken to the police. Not to mention that if you don’t believe
what Yoko said about Mayumi’s letter and affair and the mysterious Mr. A, then Yoko
was the last person who saw Mayumi alive, and was in fact the only person who Mayumi
supposedly told that she was leaving to go see a classmate. The main issue myself and
others see with this theory is motive. Why would Yoko have felt the need to kill her
sister? It was unlikely that it was related to jealousy over her life. Maybe it was possibly
related to her parent’s seeming to prefer Mayumi over Yoko, but with so little information
on the family outside of this one interview and word of mouth it becomes incredibly difficult
to say. One other major issue with this theory is arguably one of the most shocking recent
developments in this case: Yoko Arashi has been missing since 2013. She isn’t listed
in the official Japanese Missing Persons Database[ai], but according to a variety of Japanese forums
and blog posts, Yoko seems to have been missing for years with next to no leads about what
could have happened to her. Could she have disappeared herself in a manner possibly similar
to her sister? Or were both daughters the unfortunate victims of their parents. It doesn’t
seem like we’ll be finding out any time soon.
It’s been over 15 years since Mayumi Arashi first went missing, and since the interview
in 2011 [aj]any new leads and information have been scarce to say the least, and it
seems the police themselves have also completely given up on finding Mayumi at all. While her
Database entry used to show a photo of her as well as some information about her,[ak]
it has since become a dead link. However, back in 2015 the page simply read “Thank
you for your cooperation.” [al]Could this have been a message that the police had found
out what happened to Mayumi and were simply keeping it underwraps for the sake of the
family, or was this their way of saying that they had given up on solving this case, and
that maybe we should simply let it rest as well.
The intriguing case of Mayumi and the Arashi Family[am] is the perfect storm of incredibly
interesting nuggets of information that are just juicy enough to help people form theories
that seem like they could be true, but such a lack of concrete proof and evidence of anything
that nothing can be truly proven or disproven with any level of certainty. All we can hope
is that wherever Mayumi and her sister Yoko are, they’re at peace, and that the child
Mayumi left behind can grow up to live a better life than the mother that left her too soon.
This is the end of the story, at least for now. Comment below any theories or thoughts
you have about this case, and let us know about any other videos you would like to see
us make in the future. Thank you for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one.