E136 - Girl by the Shore: Yokoto Megumi

**Jessica** (0:00)
This is Jessica and you're listening to The Asian Madness Podcast.
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to The Asian Madness Podcast in the year 2026 Honestly, I'm surprised I'm still here doing this little podcast. Thank you for continuing to tune in. And while I may not be one of the big names out there, that's totally cool with me. I enjoy doing this, not in a, this is fun, but more in a, I like sharing these stories with people. So thank you. With that out of the way, let's get into today's case. I found this case online somehow, and I immediately knew I had to put it on my list. It's strange, almost plays out like a movie. But a lot of weirder than fiction cases exist in our world. So at this point, what will truly shock you? So imagine yourself as a teenager. You go to school, you have a family, you have friends, you have to do stupid homework every day, and you probably have a crush on that boy sitting across the room from you. Simple everyday teenager things. Then suddenly, someone's like, nope, you can't be here anymore. And then you're taken away, kidnapped, and you never see your family ever again. These kidnappers not only take you away from your home, from your loved ones, you actually wake up in a foreign country. Is this human trafficking? Or something else? Don't get me wrong, people know where you're at. Your family knows. Your government knows. But there's nothing they can do for you. As much as this sounds like an action movie about a teenager's resilience and revenge, real life does not tend to play out that way. But this is something that actually happened to Yokoto Megumi back in 1977 She was snatched away, not spirited away, and everything about what happened to her afterwards still remains a mystery. Sure, there were accounts of her life post-kidnapping, but are these accounts to be trusted? Some say no, and you'll see why. Let's begin.
Yokoto Megumi was born on October 5, 1964, in Nagoya, Japan. This would make her 61 in early 2026 But let's slow down a bit first. Not much is really known about her background, unfortunately, but we do know that when she was around too, her family moved to Tokyo, and two years later in 1968, her twin younger brothers, Tetsuya and Takuya, were born. The family then moved again in 1972 from Tokyo to Hiroshima, and in July of 1976, the Yokota family up and moved to Niigata Prefecture. That seems like a lot of moving around, and it must have been difficult leaving friends behind, having to make new ones, and enrolling in new schools. Regardless, Megumi and her brothers made the best out of it, following their parents and adjusting to their new lives every single time.
Megumi met her best friend at the time in September of 1976, a girl named Shinbo Emiko. The two soon became familiar and fast friends, taking part in the elementary school's choir club together. Megumi was a good singer, and was also talented in drawing and quite athletic. Megumi's family also became familiar with Emiko's presence, happy to see their daughter in good company and adjusting well in school. In April of 1977, Megumi was enrolled in the local Niigata Shiritsu, or Niigata City Yori Junior High School. It was supposed to be the good kind of boring life, where you go to school, make friends, lose friends, take tests, and complain about the teachers. But not long after starting junior high, things took a very dramatic turn for the Yokota family, and those around Megumi.
It was just supposed to be another regular day, Tuesday, November 15th, 1977 A little cold, a little windy, but nothing out of the ordinary. 13-year-old Megumi woke up like she always did. She had breakfast with her family, grabbed her school bag, and headed out to class. She laughed with friends, played a little badminton after school along with her friend Emiko. On this day though, Megumi was said to have injured her finger during practice, and ultimately decided to return home early. Home was barely 7 minutes away. She said goodbye to her friends, but she never made it home. When the clock ticked past 6 p.m., and Megumi still hadn't walked through the door, her mother, Sakiya, felt something wasn't right. She rushed to the school gym, hoping to catch her on the way, but Megumi wasn't there. When she asked around, the night watchman told her that the school kids had left ages ago. And just like that, panic set in. Sakiya also made a call to her daughter's best friend, Emiko, wondering if they were together. Of course, you know the answer to that. Emiko couldn't imagine the worst for Megumi. In a child's mind, it was safe for them to assume that their friend probably just stopped by a shop or ran into another friend. They may not immediately think of the worst, and I would be surprised if anyone managed to guess what really happened to Megumi. The police got involved quickly. Search parties formed immediately. Flashlights cutting through the pine trees. Police shouting her name. Tracker dogs sniffing the path that led to the sea. Her mother running to the beach in the dark, scanning the shadows between the parked cars, calling for her daughter. It made sense to look near the shoreline. They were living in a seaside town after all. But maybe it was something deeper that pulled Sakiya there. Some gut-level dread that she couldn't shake. And sure enough, out in the blackness of the ocean, just beyond the waves, a boat was already moving. Of course, no one knew anything about a boat at the time. This would all come to light years later. Yokota Shigeru, Megumi's father, started walking the shoreline every morning, hoping to see something, anything. If a body was washed up to shore, he would immediately ask if it was his daughter. It never was. At night, he would cry in the bath, quietly, so no one could hear. Sakiya cried too, but only when she was alone. She didn't want to scare her sons, Takuya and Tetsuya, who were just 9 years old at the time. The house, once filled with chatter and brightness, turned heavy, quiet, cold. Takuya would later say that he still remembers waking up each day thinking, maybe this is it, maybe she'll walk through the door today. But that never happened, and it would never happen. What the family didn't know, what no one knew for years, was that Megumi was still alive, at least at the time. Her family didn't know it yet, but Megumi wasn't even alone. Over the years, more similar cases would surface. More disappearances. Some confirmed, others still in limbo. No, this isn't some predator kidnapping little kids all over Japan, or some deranged murderer grabbing people off the streets to fulfill their personal fantasies. At least, not in Megumi's case. The real reason for Megumi's disappearance was very bizarre.