F-0003 Article fragment about a column that appeared after distribution

‘Condolence’ column appears in neighborhood circular; inquiries surge in part of Kirino 3-chome

It has been learned that in part of Kirino 3-chome, residents have been sending inquiries to neighborhood association officials after a small ‘condolence’ column, said not to have been present at the time of distribution, was printed in a neighborhood circular circulated at the end of the month. The column reportedly contained a string of characters resembling the name of a man living in the district, along with what appeared to be an age, but according to those involved, no death or funeral has been confirmed.

The document in question is a routine neighborhood circular announcing things such as the collection days for recyclables and the planned replacement of security lights. In late September, when the blue circulation board used by Group 6 of Kirino 3-chome was returned to the head of the group’s home, family members noticed a small box in the lower margin.

A resident at the group leader’s home told this paper, “I don’t think it was there when it was first printed. Since it was printed on our home printer, the master copy is still here.” Meanwhile, one resident who received the circular partway through said, “I feel like I saw it, but at the time I only checked the recyclables day and passed it on. I can’t remember whether there was a condolence column.”

The name written in the box was said to differ by only one character from the name of an elderly man in the same group. The man’s family explained, “Because the character was different, I thought it wasn’t about us.” The man has since fallen ill and is said to have been refraining from going out. Another resident said, “I remember going to buy a condolence envelope, but I can’t recall who I handed it to.”

According to neighborhood association officials, when they checked the paper’s data, they could not find any corresponding column. However, on the returned paper, the guidance text at the bottom was compressed by about one line, and there was also testimony that the border line looked a little different in color from black produced by a home printer. Officials said they are verifying possibilities including printer settings and whether the sheet was swapped out.

In an image obtained by this site, a small box also appears to be visible at the lower right, but in another image sent by the photographer, the same spot was blank white. The image file names are both dated September 29, though one had a modified timestamp of just after 1:00 a.m. on September 28.

Photo: A neighborhood circular tucked into a blue circulation board. A small box can be confirmed in the lower margin = Kirino 3-chome (image deleted)

It is also said that from October’s circular onward, the group plans to use a separate sheet. An official said, “Since there are people who feel uneasy, next time we want to confirm after printing that every household has the same version of the paper.” We will follow up as soon as more information comes in.

— Local Information Archive / paper number unknown