Profile of MIYAZAKI Manabu,

Fox-Eyed Man Of 'Breakthrough'

Miyazaki Manabu was born in 1945 in Kyoto, Japan. His father was a head of a Yakuza (Japanese professional gambler) family in the venerable city, though Miyazaki himself has never been a Yakuza in his life. He made high academic achievements in senior high school, but he was also known as a notorious student for his "street fights."

In 1965, while being a Waseda University student, he joined the Japan Communist Party and became a leader of the student movement and Anti-Vietnam War movement. After 4 years of active involvement in the struggles against the school authorities, the riot police and the other student political sects, he took up a job as a freelance reporter for the 'Shukan Gendai' weekly magazine, and there he organised the Independent Writers' Union. Having spent 2 years of reporting, he returned to his home town and took over his father's construction company whose business had gone wrong following his father's death. Going around for raising funds didn't bring him and his company any good results, except for some reliable freinds he had made during the course.

One day, he was made a most wanted criminal on a suspicion of having blackmailed a general contractor. The Kyoto Prefectural Police arrested him. The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper serialized a feature article concerning the incident realtime as the police carried on questioning him in detention. He was later released after police dropped the case in the form of a disposal reservation. Despite his vigorous efforts to keep his business afloat, his company eventually failed, and he got into huge debt. Then, he came out to Tokyo to count on Mr. Man-nen Toichi, a great 'Godfather of Hoodlums'.

It was in 1982 that he was again suspected, this time, as the 'Man with Fox Eyes', who was regarded as the key suspect in the 'Glico-Morinaga Incident'--one of the most bizarre crimes yet to be resolved in the history of postwar Japan.

In October of 1996, he published his first book--an account of his past half--titled "Toppamono" (The Man of Breakthrough) from a tiny publisher named Nampu-sha. Without the benefit of advertisements, the book sold more than 170,000 copies within one year of publication. It attaracted a remarkably wide range of readership, including ultra-rightists, Yakuza, politicians, bureacrats, businessmen, ex-leftist radicals, men and women, and the young and old.

The year of 1997 became a hectic one for Miyazaki in a number of ways. First, he opened his own Home Page on the Internet to make public his thoughts on various current topics. Secondly, it was a year full of social, political and economic scandals and incidents, on which the media sought Miyazaki's comments. His interviewers were not limited to Japanese; some foreign reporters took notice of Miyazaki's uniquely straightforward comments which they could hardly expect of his country men either in the public or private sector. He also appeared on TV several times as a commentator. On many occasions, he was sought after for comments on affairs in the nation's underground world which has, by now, been rightly perceived by the foreign press as an integral part of the Japanese politics and economy. The latter half of the same year witnessed the publication of his second book "Battle-Talk Toppamono" (published by Chikuma Shobo) which is a compilation from the Q & A sessions conducted during a series of panel discussions sponsored by Miyazaki himself.

In October, 1997, he made it public, on his Home Page, to take an active part in a relief campaign for two Japanese men who were prisoned in Thailand on charges of passing counterfeit U.S. bills. The case was initially brought to Miyazaki's attention when one of the defendants, Yoshimi Tanaka, contacted him after reading "Toppamono" whose descriptions of the student movement in the late 60's and early 70's aroused quite a bit of sympathy in Tanaka, an ex-activist of the renowned Japanese Red Army. At the time of arrest, Tanaka was about to start his own business in Cambodia to raise funds to support his own family and his comrades' for the day they expected to eventually return to Japan after living under the protection of the North Korean government for nearly a quarter of a century. Having studied official court/police documents and conducted his personal investigations on the case, Miyazaki became fully convinced of the innocence of Tanaka and Mr. Kodama, the other defendant and also the former's business partner in Cambodia. Miyazaki and his relief group came up with tons of evidence and supporting documents that all pointed to the defendants' innocence as well as the possibility of a conspiracy (if not a misconceived arrest based on erroneous assumptions) formed by the American government, particularly the Secret Service of the Treasury Department. Kodama was sentenced to two and a half years of imprisonment and is now serving his time in the Bangkok prison, while he has taken an action for renewal procedure. Tanaka's trial is still going on. The Secret Service was right in one thing, that is, holding these trials in Thailand! They were probably well aware that the prosecution would not be able to maintain the case in an American court under such absence of positive evidence. Those who are interested to know more about this counterfeit bill affair are invited to the "Frame-Up!" section of this site.

As far as Miyazaki was concerned, the year of 1998 opened with a stream of new books. In February, his third book, "Futeimono" (Recalcitrants), was published by Kadokawa Haruki Office. Miyazaki's fourth book, "Toppamono No Joken" (The Conditions of 'Toppamono'), came out in February. "Toppamono Retsuden" (The Biographies of 'Toppamono') published in March, 1998.

Being established as a writer, Miyazaki has received numerous publication offers, of which at least two or three are exptected to materialized before the end of this year. (End)