Article published on November 9th, 1984.

THREATS FORCE FIRM TO CLOSE PLANTS

Peter Hazelhurst

Tokyo Correspondent

TOKYO, Thurs. - Confronted with the threat of extortioners, Japan's third largest maker of sweets has closed down its production plants and will dismiss all part-time workers this week.

A spokesman for the Morinaga confectionery company said sales had fallen sharply in recent weeks since a gang of extortioners began to insert cyanide into Morinaga products on the shelves of leading stores and supermarkets last month.

The Japanese police have failed to track down members of the gang, who are demanding 100 million yen (S$900,000) in blackmail money.

The spokesman said the company will begin to lose 1.5 billion yen a month if the police fail to solve the case by the end of this month.

Mr Sadao Takagi, Morinaga's senior managing director, said: "We will have to take every possible step to survive this crisis."

Advertisements have been stopped and the expense accounts of all executives and employees have been frozen.

"The company will probably have to ask the employees to make sacrifices this year. It's a difficult decision but we cannot help it."