OSAKA -- On the afternoon of Feb. 1, 2003, 42-year-old Naruki Okita, operator of a small marine transport company in Taisho Ward here, showed up near the docks of Izumi Kita with his luggage in tow.

Okita stopped off at a local bar, where he left his luggage and went with a bar employee to another watering hole. The two parted company near the waterfront in the early evening.

That was the last time anybody saw Okita. A four-day search of Osaka harbor failed to dredge up a body.