Shinichi Fujimura - Disclosure

Disclosure

On October 23, 2000, Fujimura and his team announced that they had another finding at the Kamitakamori site near Tsukidate town. The finds were estimated to be 570,000 years old.

On November 5, 2000, the newspaper Mainichi Shimbun published pictures of Fujimura digging holes and burying the artifacts his team later found. The pictures had been taken one day before the finding was announced. Fujimura admitted his forgery in an interview with the newspaper.

Fujimura confessed and apologized the same day in a press conference. He said that he had been "possessed by an uncontrollable urge". He had planted the artifacts from his own collection in strata that would have indicated earlier dates. In Kamitakamori he had planted 61 of 65 artifacts, and had earlier planted all of the stonework in the Soshin Fudozaka site in Hokkaidō. He claimed that these were the only times he had planted artifacts.

The Japanese Archaeological Association disaffiliated Fujimura from its members. A special investigation team of the Association revealed that almost all the artifacts which he had found were his fabrication.