Yoshio Minegishi

Yoshio Minegishi is a feared criminal boss whose power shapes the events around his son’s abduction even when he is not present. He is shown through the jobs carried out in his name, the careful ranking of his demands, and the way trusted employees respond when he decides to investigate for himself. His reach is formidable, but it does not make his family or his authority immune to danger.

Identity and Reputation

Before the story brings him into direct contact with the train’s passengers, Minegishi is known through the reputation attached to his name. He had once been a major figure in Tokyo’s underworld before returning to the countryside. Kimura, who had never met him and had never been hired by him directly, nevertheless understood that Minegishi’s influence was believed to extend across the criminal world: in Kimura’s former line of work, jobs could often be traced back to Minegishi through intermediaries. The distinction matters. Minegishi’s power is described not only as personal command but as a network capable of operating at a distance, making him an unseen source behind work done by others.

That reputation is reinforced by the men who do deal with him. Tangerine and Lemon tell Minegishi’s son that his father is frightening, and they admit that refusing the assignment would have been too dangerous. Their fear gives practical force to his authority: the contract is not simply attractive work that they freely elect to accept. Minegishi can make refusal seem like a risk in itself. The account does not show him personally carrying out violence; instead, it establishes his position through the compliance he can secure and the breadth of the criminal activity associated with him.

The Rescue Commission

Minegishi contacts Tangerine and Lemon from Morioka after his only son has been held captive in Fujisawa Kongocho. The boy is found in a room three floors underground, tied up and badly shaken; by nine in the morning, Tangerine notes that nine hours have passed since the rescue. The son says that about thirty people held him, and that he feared they would kill him even if the ransom were paid. Tangerine confirms that the fear was justified: in his view, the captors would have killed the boy once they had the money. The rescue thus answers an immediate threat to Minegishi’s son, but the assignment also involves a ransom and a demand for retribution.

Minegishi’s instructions are arranged in a clear order: bring back his son first, recover the ransom money second, and kill everyone involved third. Tangerine and Lemon complain that Minegishi expects all three outcomes, as if he means to have everything he wants. Yet the order itself is revealing. The son’s rescue takes precedence over the money and punishment, while those other demands remain part of the same commission rather than being abandoned once the boy is safe. The son praises the men as having completed the whole job, but the moment is undercut when Tangerine realizes that the suitcase containing the ransom money is nowhere in the carriage. The rescue has succeeded; the status of the money is already in doubt. The evidence does not establish here whether the other demands have been completed.

Family and the Prince

Minegishi’s family structure becomes part of the danger surrounding his journey. The Prince reports that Minegishi visits a daughter born to his mistress once a month. Minegishi also has a son by his wife, described as his heir. The Prince characterizes that son as stupid, selfish, and ineffective, while saying that Minegishi dotes on his young daughter. These are details supplied as the Prince’s intelligence, not an independent account of the children’s characters; their importance lies in the way he uses family knowledge to understand Minegishi’s priorities.

The Prince says he is travelling to Morioka to meet Minegishi and emphasizes that a child is involved. The threatened child is the daughter, not the son already rescued by Tangerine and Lemon. This brings Minegishi’s family into the Prince’s designs and sets the rescue plot beside a new point of vulnerability. Minegishi’s influence may command loyalty and fear, but the family ties that matter to him can also be identified and used by an adversary. His daughter’s place in his life is therefore presented through the Prince’s account as both a personal attachment and a potential stake in their coming encounter.

Morioka and Escalation

Minegishi’s concern about his son sharpens after a man contacts him with a report from the train: the boy looks wrong, is not moving, and may not be breathing. Minegishi recounts that he initially dismissed the warning because he believed his son was accompanied by two men he trusted. That confidence does not last. Tangerine tells him that the boy was asleep, while privately fearing that Minegishi will demand to speak to his son and discover more. The call transforms a distant commission into a personal inspection: Minegishi is no longer relying solely on the hired men’s account.

Minegishi then tells Tangerine that he is going to Morioka Station himself. He has warned that if the men have nothing to hide, they will come to Morioka; if they leave the train early, he will take that as an attempt to run and make them regret it. Tangerine agrees to go, presenting the son’s eagerness to see his father as reassurance. The exchange shows the double edge of Minegishi’s authority. He places trust in the two men he hired, yet makes that trust conditional and backs it with a threat. His journey also draws him toward the Shinkansen’s concealed disorder, where his son’s safety, the missing ransom, and the Prince’s plans converge. Minegishi’s narrative role is consequently larger than that of a distant employer: his reputation sets the rescue in motion, his family gives the conflict personal stakes, and his decision to travel to Morioka brings his power physically into the unfolding crisis.