The statute of limitations expired at midnight Sunday for the nation's biggest bank robbery, in which two men got away with 540 million yen in cash from a Kobe bank in 1994, police said Monday.
One of the two men police believe were involved committed suicide in 1997. The other, Yoshihiro Morimoto, 51, a former gangster, evaded capture even though more than 130,000 police officers took part in investigating the Aug. 5, 1994, robbery.
The incident took place at around 9:20 a.m. in the parking lot of the bank's Chuo Ward branch.
Three employees were unloading three metal cases containing cash when two men confronted them with what looked like a handgun and forced them into the bank vehicle. The two men then took the cases and fled in a van.