ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--Masatoshi Saijo gingerly opened a package sent to his company on Feb. 7, wondering if it contained "hazardous material" because it was so heavy.
ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--Masatoshi Saijo gingerly opened a package sent to his company on Feb. 7, wondering if it contained "hazardous material" because it was so heavy.
Saijo, 68, was flabbergasted to find it contained 1-kilogram gold bar worth around 5 million yen ($54,000).
And therein lies a story that is making headlines across Japan.
A mysterious benefactor has taken to sending gifts of gold--what the media dubbed a "goodwill gold rush"--ahead of the second anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami disaster that left this city in ruins two years ago and claimed the lives of more than 3,000 residents.
But this good Samaritan gave no name or contact details, nor instructions about what to do with the gifted gold bullion.
Saijo is president of Ishinomaki Machizukuri Manbow, a company established by the public and private sectors to help with the city's revival.
The first package mailed to Saijo's company arrived on Feb. 4. It contained two 500-gram gold bars.
"I was really worried when I was opening it," Saijo recalled on receiving the second package. "It was so heavy. I wondered what was inside."
Saijo is not the only recipient of largesse.
The Ishinomaki Fish Market Co. and the Ishinomaki Revival Support Network, a nonprofit organization, also received deliveries of gold, 2 kilograms each, in the mail and via a home delivery service.
The total worth of 6 kilograms of gold bars sent with the apparent intention of helping this northern city get back on its feet comes to 30 million yen.
In each case, the package carried stamps from the Nagano Chuo Post Office and Nagano Higashi Post Office in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan. Parcels were also sent from Nagano through a home delivery service.
Machizukuri Manbow manages an exhibition hall, which showcases works by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori, a native of Miyagi Prefecture, who died in 1998. The hall reopened only last November after being closed for more than a year due to damage from the March 11, 2011, tsunami generated by the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Saijo told a news conference Feb. 15, "I wish the sender could give his or her name so we can ask what would be the best way to use the gold."
In one parcel Machizukuri Manbow received, the gold bars were stuffed between pages from a magazine aimed at elderly readers. The bullion sent to the fish market was similarly wrapped.
The Revival Support Network said it received a telephone call from an apparently elderly woman who said she wanted to support the organization. The group gave her details of its bank account in case she wished to make a donation.
Officials said 280,000 yen was deposited in three installments under an anonymous name.
Kunio Suno, the president of the Ishinomaki fish market, said that he really hoped to find out the identity of the donor to say thank him. "But I have no intention of doing this in a forcible manner. It's my guess that the person who is doing this has connections with Ishinomaki," he added.
According to Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K., a gold refiner and manufacturer in Tokyo, the majority of its customers aim at long-term investment rather than short-term trading.
Thanks partly to the weak yen, the prices of gold has stayed high at 5,000 yen or more per gram since January—more than double the rate immediately after the collapse of U.S. investment Lehman Brothers in 2008, which triggered a global downturn.
Whoever sent the bullion to Ishinomaki presumably had an astute understanding of the gold market, said one source.
Survivors of the tsunami are by and large stunned by the generosity of the mysterious benefactor.
"Wow! I wish it came to me, too," said 62-year-old Saburo Fuse of the local fish processors association. "I am delighted there are people who send us such gifts. But we cannot rely on that sort of support forever."
The phenomenon that is transforming life in Ishinomaki is reminiscent of the Tiger Mask gift-giving movement that swept the nation for several months from December 2010.
Boxes filled with backpacks and envelops of cash were sent by donors calling themselves Naoto Date, the name of a superhero in the popular Japanese manga "Tiger Mask."
Packages arrived at children's homes and other facilities for children.
Tetsuya Abe, 50, who heads the Tiger Mask Foundation, which was formed to keep the movement going, was emphatic in saying the gifts of gold bullion have meaning.
"It is an announcement to the effect that society will not forget the disaster-stricken areas," he said.
In that same vein, Abe said the Tiger Mask movement created new public awareness of problems facing children.
"Senders may have wanted to bring the plight of disaster-stricken areas to public attention by sending pure gold, not cash."