64

In 2002 (Heisei 14), public relations officer Mikami Yoshinobu of the D Prefectural Police is locked in a tense clash with the correspondents’ club over the anonymity of a perpetrator in a traffic accident that left a victim seriously injured. Meanwhile, the top brass informs him that a decision to stage the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department commissioner’s visit to the home of the victim’s family in 64, an important unsolved case whose statute of limitations is about to expire, will be made one week hence. The case, referred to internally as 64, is the kidnapping and murder of Shoko-chan that occurred in January 1989 (Showa 64), the worst incident in D Prefectural Police history. Mikami is under strict orders to obtain the family’s consent and to supply the reporters’ questions in advance. The visit is intended to underscore the police’s resolve to solve the case. Yet the victim’s father, Amemiya Yoshio, rejects the commissioner’s visit, and the correspondents’ club refuses to cooperate for the commissioner’s press conference. Mikami finds himself torn between the organizational ethos of the top brass and the demands of the correspondents’ club. The club denounces a perceived reversal in Mikami’s attitude, which had remained open until then. Complicating matters, Mikami is dealing with a personal crisis at home: his only daughter Ayumi has been missing for several months.